


Broken Home

by LordKaiserthe1st



Series: Rose Redemption AU [12]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Mother-Son Relationship, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind, Rose resurrection AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-07-12 06:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19941811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordKaiserthe1st/pseuds/LordKaiserthe1st
Summary: Steven decides to celebrate his sixteenth birthday with the rest of his family by spending the day in Funland! Rose struggles to come to terms with her child growing into young adulthood, but with what's to come, it would seem that such regrets will soon be the least of her worries.





	1. Chapter 1

Rose clung ever more tightly onto the metal bar in front of her while their cart arose up over the peak of the track as it made its way to the apex of its arc. After reaching the top, everything stopped. And then slowly, it began to tilt forward.

The instant they descended back down at breakneck speeds, she felt the hot, heavy summer air whip past her face and through her hair while her body was overcome with a sense of weightlessness.

In the excitement she threw caution to the wind, tentatively letting go as she threw her hands above her head, her voice joining the symphony of screams amidst the other passengers aboard. With every turn and loop the track would take them, she felt her body shift and jerk in response to the change in momentum. For a few moments, she felt that if she were just a few feet higher, the tips of her fingers could almost touch the fiery afternoon sky before once again tumbling back down again to the boardwalk below.

Beside her, she could see her son mimic her actions, lost in the thrill of the moment until finally, just as soon as it started, it came to an end. Over the aged speakers, a slightly static filtered voice could be heard.

“We hope you enjoyed your ride on The Thunderbird today, everyone! Feel free to collect your t-shirt and commemorative photo just past the ticket booth and come see us again soon!”

Even a few minutes after being off the ride itself, and it still felt as though her head was constantly spinning from the ordeal. Like she had been trapped on an endlessly spinning merry-go-round. And if Steven’s stumbling was of any indication, she was not alone.

“Yo, Steven!” Cried Amethyst, holding some fried concoction on a paper plate in one of her hands. “Check it out, Birthday Boy. I got ya a funnel cake!” she teased, breaking off a piece to hand to Steven.

With little more than a sickly moan, Steven raised his hand to block the sight of the sugary treat from his view, “Uh… make it go away!” he moaned. Amethyst merely shrugged, scarfing down the entire treat, plate and all as Steven tried not make himself feel any worse.

By the time he had seemingly managed to pull himself together, Rose had scooped him into her arms for a gigantic bear hug, “Happy Birthday, Steven!” she gleefully cried out.

Through his pained expression, Steven fought to put on the ghost of a smile. “Thanks, Mom, but you don’t have to make a big deal out of it. I just kinda wanted everyone to have fun today.”

“It’s a big deal to me, sweetie!” Rose insisted, “I’ve only been with you for a little over a year and this is the first birthday where I got to celebrate with you! And only now that I’m here you’re turning sixteen!? It’s just not fair!”

“Yeah, Greg’s been talking about teachin’ him a little more about how to drive to get his permit.” Amethyst said, knowing full well the response it would garner from Rose.

“Noooo!” Rose whined, “Steven, why can’t you just stay tiny and adorable a little longer?”

“I thought you liked it when people grew up and changed.” He questioned.

“Well… you’re different.” Rose tried to reason, however awkwardly, “You’re my little baby bear, and I wasn’t able to be there when you were smaller.”

“That’s not your fault, Mom.” Steven reassured.

“I know… just… promise you’ll stay little just a bit longer, okay?”

Steven sighed, rolling his eyes in defeat, “Okay, I promise.” He answered jokingly.

“You sure you wanna stay small bud? ‘Cause it looks like you and Rose had fun there riding the Thunder Bird.” Amethyst deduced, pointing to Rose’s new t-shirt, “Can’t do that if you’re still a squirt.”

Rose already found it hard to contain her enthusiasm, “Oh, yes! Steven wanted to the two of us to try every ride here. He thought it would be fun for both of us!”

Amethyst chuckled, “I can tell, your hair is all janked up.”

Rose felt puzzled, pulling out the photo of the two of them together while on the ride. And sure enough, her normally uniform hair style had become messy and wild. The sight of it made Rose burst into a giggle, “Oh, how do I look?” Rose mocked, fluffing one the now matted pink ringlets of hair that draped over her shoulders.

Amethyst snickered, “Yeah, you should keep it like that. Bet it’ll drive Pearl nuts seeing your hair in a big mess!”

A short, electronic tune was heard through the ambient white noise of the boardwalk. Before Rose could guess its origin, she noticed Steven fish out his cellphone from his pocket. He looked back to them, struggling finding the right words to say, “Hey… so Connie said she wanted to meet me here, too…” he started to say, trying, and failing, to hide his obvious blush, “Do you mind if I..?”

Rose laughed and shook her head, “Steven, it’s fine. I can survive a few minutes without you.”

“Yeah, ‘sides, wouldn’t want to interrupt you meeting up with your girlfriend!” Amethyst teased, placing special emphasis on that final word if only because it made his blush that must more obvious. With a nod of recognition, Steven hurriedly scurried off. Almost instantly disappearing into the shuffle of locals and tourists alike before his voice broke through the crowd.

“I love you, Mom! Love you Amethyst!” he hollered out as he left.

“Love you more, baby!” Rose called back.

“Alright, finally weened him from ya for a few minutes, now yer comin’ with me!” Amethyst insisted, already taking hold of Rose’s hand to pull her away. While the two continued onward, they had passed by an assortment of attractions. From numerous rides adorned with bright multicolored lights, amusing carnival games, and vendors that offered an assortment of fried confections.

Finally, they stopped upon stepping up towards one such game. At a glance, Rose could easily recognize the basic setup around it. On the opposite side to her stood two pyramid stacks of empty bottles, the goal being to knock them down with one well timed toss with a ball to win a prize. The more you knocked over, the higher the prize.

Although initially absent, she could already hear from behind the frantic pants of someone fast approaching the stand.

“Hold on, I’ll be right there!” he cried out, Rose recognizing the voice as Mr. Smiley, the owner and sadly only active employee in Funland. Upon arriving, he dashed past them and lept over the counter, scrambling to his feet and dusting off his shirt in an effort to make himself look more presentable.

“Whew, sorry it took so long, July and August are usually my worst months…” he said between breaths, propping himself on his knees to keep from collapsing altogether from exhaustion. As he turned to see them again, he froze. “O-oh! Mrs. Universe, you enjoying you visit so far?” he asked nervously.

Rose nodded, “I am, thank you again for offering to let us in for free today.”

Keeping true to his upbeat image, he simply grinned and waved it off, “Not a problem, I just felt so bad after that woman knocked your lights out a few weeks back. It was the least I could do.” He reassured, Rose noticing a slight rasp in his voice as he gasped for air between words.

“Are you really the only one who works here?” Rose asked.

“Oh, I’m fine. Hasn’t killed me yet, right?” he joked, giving off a sarcastic laugh that somehow seemed more concerning than amusing.

“But who would run it if you couldn’t?”

He shrugged, “No clue, help is so hard to come by around here. Guess Funland would need to close if something happened to me.”

Something about that just didn’t sit well with Rose, “That’s such a shame, though. This place is special. It’s where humans can come to have fun and enjoy themselves. It means a lot to Steven…”

“Well, ever thought about applying for a job here?” Mr. Smiley offered, “You ever done anything like this before?”

Rose’s mind recalled memories of her days as a Diamond, of the grand balls she would host in celebrations of Homeworld and of the excitement she held in bringing joy to its gems. “I used to do something like this… but not for a very long time.” she admitted, “These days, I spend most of my time looking after Steven.”

“Well, if you’re ever interested, you could apply online at…”

“Alright, alright, enough. C’mon Rose, I brought ya here to win something!” Amethyst blurted out.

Wasting no more time, Mr. Smiley placed four tennis balls on the counter in front and stepped away. She gave a confident smile as she took aim. She knew that although these may have been a decent challenge to humans, as a gem, it was trivial. With two good tosses, each tower came crashing down. For her victory, she was rewarded with a prize of her choosing; a large stuffed dinosaur for Steven.

“You really sure Steven would want something like that?” Amethyst questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Y’know. Since Steven’s turning sixteen, he may be a little… old… for something like that?” Amethyst reasoned.

“I… I didn’t think about that.” Rose shyly admitted.

Amethyst rolled her eyes, “I know, I know. You wanted to get something cute for ‘your baby’.”

Rose could already feel her cheeks begin to warm from embarrassment, “I… that’s not…”

Amethyst groaned, “Dude, I’m just giving you grief. Don’t take too personal. I get you’re just super excited to be with him.”

Rose sighed, giving a nod of acknowledgement, “I am…”

“I see you two are having fun.” Replied Garnet as she arrived with her own prize, what looked to be a creature from human myth called a gryphon slung under her arm.

“Oh, Garnet, that toy looks so adorable!”

“Thanks, it wasn’t too hard to win it,” Garnet said with a smirk, light shimmering her visor as she adjusted it with her free hand, “One of us wanted to get it for the other.”

“Oh, so who won it for whom?” Rose asked.

Garnet gave a sly grin, “I’ll leave you to guess that…”

Behind Garnet followed Pearl and Bismuth, each standing close to one another with their arms locked together as Pearl leaned against her partner. Instinctively, Rose felt an ache of discomfort from being in the same space as Bismuth, but as she saw Pearl’s smile as she looked up to the rainbow-haired gem she felt herself much more at ease.

Bismuth waved to Amethyst, “Hey there, Deep cut!”

“Yo, Bismuth! How’s your date with Pearl going?” Amethyst asked.

Pearl’s huffed, “Amethyst, I kept telling you, we’re not… dating,” she asserted, “W-we’re just here to celebrate Steven’s birthday! Bismuth asked if she could join us, and being that she is a close and valued friend, I heartily accepted.”

“Speaking of which, have you seen how much the little guy has grown?” Bismuth said, “He’s outgrowing a lot of his old cloths, there’s this fuzz that’s growing all over his face now…”

“That hair, dear.” Pearl corrected, “That’s normal for humans.”

“…right and now I’m noticing his voice is starting to get a little deeper! He’s already a bit taller than Amethyst here!”

“Yeah, Peri and I are gonna have to bump him of the ‘Shorty Squad’ soon if this keeps up.” Amethyst reasoned, “Ya know Garnet, if Ruby and Sapphire are ever interested, we can always use new members!”

“We’ll take your offer into consideration.” Garnet answered before turning her attention to Rose, “You must be pretty excited, Rose. I always remembered how much people would change being something that used to fascinate you. And now it seems Steven is ready to open a whole new chapter on his life.”

At first, Rose was filled with a burst of sheer excitement, a sensation that humans would amusingly refer to as ‘getting butterflies in your stomach’. It was a feeling which had always consumed her as she thought about the uncertainties and near limitless possibilities one would have with each passing moment. Of the uncharted paths and new experiences for them to take. But strangely, she felt the initial euphoria just as swiftly begin to wither away. In its place came a feeling of longing and regret, something she struggled to process.

“I… well I thought I would be.” Rose stated somberly, staring down at the stuffed toy in her hands, “I mean, I’m happy for him! I truly am. I can’t begin to describe how proud I am of how far Steven has come. However, I suppose I have to face the reality that my baby… isn’t really a baby anymore. I missed practically his entire childhood. And that reality still has not set well with me.”

The others had now grown quiet. Rose panicked to try and explain herself further. “I… I know that it sounds so utterly selfish of me…” she stumbled, “I just wanted to feel like I’ve played a more meaningful part in his life, like all of you have. You’ve all supported and guided him along in your own ways, I want to feel like I’m doing so as well...”

“Trust me, Rose, you are.” Pearl assured, “You may not be noticing it now. But we do. You’ve been a part of his life for over a year, now.”

“Yeah, so like it or not, you’re stuck with us!” Amethyst blurted with a smile.

Rose chuckled, “It’s certainly a better family than what I started with…”

“Rose, despite everything, we would have loved to have you be there for him too. But take it from us, you need to stop dwelling in that past.” Garnet stated, “Think of the new memoires you’ll make with everyone. You may have missed out on his early years, but just think. Now you’ll have the rest of his life to play a part in.”

“I… thank you, Garnet…”

Through the muddled chatter and deafening ambiance around them, Rose could make out a familiar voice among the gathered parkgoers. At first, she had assumed from his exhausted pants that it was likely poor Mr. Smiley, still diligently navigating back and forth to another side attraction, but as the voice approached, she was quick to recognize who it was.

“Rose! Stay right there, I made it!” cried Greg, wheezing as he finally made his way to the others as Connie followed right beside him.

“Connie! Greg! Oh my stars!” Rose proclaimed, already rushing to his aid.

“Did I… miss the fun? I’m sorry I took so long. Tried to finish work early. Got really busy that last hour...” Greg asked, his attempt as a laugh causing him to cough and gasp for air.

“Greg, dear, just relax. I promise you didn’t miss Steven’s big day.” Rose reassured as she helped Greg to his feet.

After finally catching his breath, Greg smiled, “Well, this year is special. This is the first time we get to celebrate his birthday as the Universe Family. I know it means a lot to you. And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Rose sighed, bending down to leave a kiss on Greg’s cheek, “I’m sure Steven would forgive you. But I might need a kiss from you before I consider it.” She teased, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger. With an eager grin, Greg obliged.

“Now we better get to tracking our Birthday Boy. There’s someone with me who’s dying to see him.” Greg asserted, motioning to Connie.

“Hello Connie!” Rose said, “You ready to have us regroup with Steven?”

“You bet!” she cheerfully exclaimed, before dropping to a more nervous tone, “Just as soon as we find out where he is.”

Her answer left Rose perplexed, “Weren’t you with Steven?”

Connie simply shook her head, “No, I thought he was with you guys.”

“No, Steven said he left to go meet up with you.”

“Right, I texted him to let him know his Dad and I were almost to the front gate.”

“And you didn’t see him there?” Rose asked. Connie shook her head once more. Upon regrouping with the gems, she all asked them if they had seen Steven at all before meeting with her. Each one giving a similar, yet different answer. Garnet was preoccupied with the carnival games. Amethyst was obvious, as she was with Rose the entire time after Steven left them. Pearl and Bismuth explained how they only just got to Funland, as they been enjoying a nice walk across the boardwalk before arriving.

Each answer left Rose with a feeling of restlessness and anxiety. None of their stories made sense, at least one of them had to have seen Steven, and it’s not like he would willingly slip by them. Where could he have gone?

“Maybe he simply got lost?” Amethyst shrugged, “Summer crowds are usually pretty bad. Maybe try calling him?”

“Let me check.” Pearl suggested. Without a second thought, she tapped the surface of her gemstone. In an instant, her phone materialized and dropped into her hand before she immediately entered his number. A few moments later, she gave a puzzled look, “Wait, what?”

“What is it?” Bismuth asked.

“It went straight to voicemail.” Pearl stated, “Why would he not have his phone on?”

Connie looked to Rose, appearing just as worried and befuddled as her, “Mrs. Universe?”

“I… I’m going to go look for him.” Rose stammered, trying to hide how uneasy all of this was making her.

Initially, she tried to retrace his steps, returning to where they were shortly after exiting the Thunderbird. She replayed the memory of him departing in her head to decipher which direction he had gone. Now having to practically fight her way through horde of tourists did she really stop to think of just how many people were here. So many voices drowning each other out. So many faces that would appear as a blur to her as she rushed past them. No wonder Steven may have gotten lost, to the untrained eye, he’d just be another part of the larger mob.

But all the same, she called out to him. Her cries going unanswered. It took a few moments to realize she had already made it to the entranceway. Now she was starting to panic. Everyone else was almost clear on the other end of the boardwalk. She had crossed that distance and was still no closer to finding him. Perhaps I simply past him by, she thought, another search might…

Her first step back, she noticed something on the ground. A tiny, rectangular device that lay broken and smashed, the screen cracked and splintered. She recognized the old worn out case, but part of her didn’t want to believe it. Curiosity won out, and few moments later she had managed to retrieve it before it could be damaged any further.

As she waited for the small electronic to boot up, she was greeted with a photo of her, Steven and Greg gathered together behind Greg’s van as its lock screen. ‘This… this is Steven’s phone…’ she realized, ‘But… where’s Steven? What happened to my son?’


	2. Chapter 2

Shortly after Rose scrambled to regroup and told them what she had found, Greg wasted no time in calling the police. It was as though a switch had been flipped, the usual hustle and bustle of tourists brought to screeching halt upon the sight of flashing red and blue lights. Most of the shock came from the very presence of law enforcement itself.

Sure, Beach City was no stranger to trouble, but few times if ever did anyone ever think they needed to bring themselves to call the authorities. And even then, the trouble it was met with had always been of the sort that would be sorted out by the Crystal Gems. After all, why call the authorities to deal with magical oddities when you had neighbors who were more often than not capable of solving it themselves?

The sight of a patrol car somehow seemed more frightening than any spaceship in the townie’s eyes, it wasn’t some far off issue that rarely ever targeted them, this was something that hit them close to home. And it was because of that feeling that it seemed all the more troubling and bewildering to passing locals as they realized who it was that had initially called for help to begin with.

Everyone looked thoroughly shaken, but Rose had somehow managed to look especially uneasy as she sat on a bench beside Funland’s front gate, appearing to be on the verge of tears as Greg sat right beside her to keep her company.

As the officer bombarded her with questions, Rose felt her resolve continually challenged. The more she tried to recount what had happened, still struggling to fathom that it had all taken place merely hours ago, the more she found herself scrutinizing herself. With every recollection, she felt her sense of hindsight scold her for not taking proper precaution, not thinking about what she could have done. She felt she was finally becoming accustomed to her life as a parent and now Steven had just simply disappeared as if in thin air right under her nose.

Every moment it felt like she was on the brink of collapse, she would feel a light squeeze from her hand, a reminder that these fears weren’t just shared by her alone. Stars, even when at their lowest, Greg still tried his best to reach out to others.

What only seemed to make things worse was when they had to question Mr. Smiley himself. “How did this even happen? Don’t you have at least a few employees to staff here?”, a Patrolwoman asked.

Mr. Smiley gave only a nervous grin, “Well, er, you see. That would be nice… if I had anyone that actually wanted to work here…” he said with halfhearted shrug.

“Sir, are you telling me you’re the sole employee of this entire Amusement Park?” the officer asked, not bothering to hide her revulsion.

“…As well as the Arcade a few feet from here…” Mr. Smiley answered meekly. The policewoman only rubbed her temples while an exasperated groan escaped her lips. “This was a disaster waiting to happen…” she grumbled, “Fine, fine. Do you at least have security cameras around your businesses to monitor parkgoers?”

Mr. Smiley perked up, as if his answer would have been enough to salvage his business from this nightmare, “Oh, you bet I do!”

“Okay… let’s just… review those…” She groaned, sounding as though she were already prepping herself to fight an oncoming migraine.

As the two of them left, Rose felt her mind continue to go a mile a minute, concocting increasingly dreadful nightmare scenarios to make sense of the literal nightmare that was unfolding before her. Each passing second, she felt her body tense up and her breath shorten. Was this something that was normal for everyone who reared children, or was this fear born of her own incompetence?

“Rose?” She froze. The sudden mention of her name stealing her from her own thoughts.

“Honey, I know you’re scared. But these people know what they’re doing…” Greg reassured her.

“With all due respect, Greg, we got our own ways to track Steven.” Bismuth asserted, immediately summoning everyone else’s attention, “Garnet’s the one with the plan, so listen to her.”

“This isn’t the first time one of ours or a resident of Beach City has… disappeared.” Garnet said, “After Steven returned from Homeworld, me, Amethyst, and Pearl worked to put together a contingency in the event another gem related string of kidnappings took place.”

“Wait, you think a gem may have done this like before?” Connie asked, bewildered.

“Not likely, the past kidnappings were always done during the night, when they were alone. But this was in the middle of a particularly crowded afternoon.” Pearl surmised.

“Look, Steven isn’t just some random kid.” Connie pleaded, “I like to think I know my boyfriend pretty well. He’s a complete marshmallow, but he can bench-press Mr. Universe’s van. If another human tried to take him, it would have ended very differently.”

“So, we’re looking for either looking for a human as tough as a Diamond, or a gem smart enough to blend in with humans.” Amethyst clarified, “Okay, well we know exactly one person that sorta fits with the second one. Or she did, she’s not really a Diamond anymore.” She said, pointing a thumb towards Rose.

“Garnet, what do you think?” Rose asked.

“I think the best way to increase the results of our search…” Garnet reasoned, “…is to increase the number of eyes.”

It took a moment for Rose to pick up what Garnet was suggesting. And as soon as she did, she felt a cold shiver of anxiety wash over her, “G-Garnet, please, I can’t. Me and them…”

“Rose. Steven needs them.” Garnet stated, “We need all the Crystal Gems.”

* * *

Garnet had been quick to reassure Rose that she didn’t need to be present with them for this step. Even if it still bothered her concerning the lengths Rose would go to avoid confronting any of the gems, she understood her reasoning. Her reputation among them was less than desirable to say the least, even more than a year after the news of her return.

Some gems had even threatened to move elsewhere, still bitter from the lies she had told them as well as the millennia spent wandering Earth as wild, mindless beasts. But with Bismuth’s ever reliant power of persuasion, she thankfully managed to coral them back together more or less. Even with the war over, her better wisdom told her they needed to stay together. They maybe didn’t agree on everything, but they were still a family, and this place was always meant to be their home.

She remembered when this particular spot had been chosen by both Lapis and Peridot, it wasn’t hard to see why. Out in the distance were wide open, rolling meadows sprinkled with patches of forest cover that would echo with the music of songbirds. In one direction, one could just barely see Beach City over the horizon.

This had once been the home to Greg’s family barn. Now in its place stood a thriving new gem settlement. Everywhere she looked, Garnet could spot homes, shops, all types of structures no doubt brought into being with Bismuth’s talent. Even now, it still made her smile to see this place. If anything, it stood as a reminder of how Steven had managed to succeed where Rose failed in accomplishing her dream.

But the longer Rose stayed with them, the more precarious Garnet’s relationship with the other gems here seemed to be. She hoped there was still enough good will left over between her and Steven to call for their aid. She certainly wasn’t lying when she told Rose she felt Steven needed them.

It didn’t take long for gems to gather around the warp pad in the center of town. At least it still seemed her very presence was enough to command some measure of authority. Whatever they had been doing or where they had been going, they all simply froze as they listened. They knew that if Garnet was here, it had to be important.

“Crystal Gems! Steven has gone missing. We need whatever help we can muster to help search…”

“If Rose is still there, we want nothing to do with it!” Shouted one disgruntled voice before being cheered one by others around them.

“It shouldn’t matter!” Pearl insisted, “Steven helped all of you, he healed you from corruption, you at least owe it to him…”

“And it never would have happened if you and Rose didn’t drag us into that stupid war!” chanted another voice.

“No self-respecting leader would keep a traitor like that so close to her!”

“How do we know that she may not secretly still be in charge!?”

Garnet quickly realized she was losing control of the crowd. She frantically tried to think of what to say before…

“ENOUGH!” Bismuth hollered, her bellowing drowning out the cries of the mob until they were snuffed out like a small campfire in a rainstorm. “I am ashamed of all of you! You seriously call yourselves Crystal Gems!? Steven has stuck his neck for all of you all before he ever even met any of you and this is how you thank him!?” Still more silence from the audience.

“Oh, look at you, you got beef with Rose! Good for you, honey!” Bismuth said sarcastically, “Guess what? Everyone here does, especially me! You want to stay angry with her? I don’t blame you! You go right ahead. But if you don’t want to look out for the person that saved your sorry butts, then you got no grounds for calling yourselves Crystal Gems. Either help us…” She offered, “Or get on this warp pad and go! I hear Homeworld is better that it used to be, but I can’t promise if the other Diamonds will be as generous as Steven.”

None of the other gems said a word. The only sounds that could be heard now merely hushed whispers. “Well?” Bismuth blurted, placing her hands on her hips as she waited for the rest to take action.

* * *

Connie tried her best to steady herself against the stress of the past few hours. She, with the help of Lion and Amethyst had spent all night scouring the outskirts of Beach City. They weren’t entirely sure what specifically they were looking for. Perhaps it was more something Rose thought to give them to keep their addled minds busy. From what she and the others knew so far, they had no idea still as to how or even why this all happened. That was a thought that had been nibbling away in the back of her mind. Well, at least one of several.

It still barely made any sense to her. One moment, Steven was with his mother and Amethyst. The next, poof, gone. Like he never even existed. That was enough to send a chill up her spine. No cries for help. No signs of a struggle. Their only hint for it being a kidnapping in the first place being the remains of his trampled cell phone.

What, or namely who, could have done this? Why? And most troubling, where were they taking Steven now and for what purpose? She felt her grip around Lion’s mane tighten as he maneuvered through the thick grove outside of town. The only thing drowning out her thoughts being the symphony of crickets that seemed to come from every direction. Lion paused, greeting her with a look that seemed to show concern for her.

Connie sighed, “I’m… I’m okay, Lion.” She reassured, taking a moment to scratch behind a particularly favorite spot of his behind his ear. That at least seemed to cheer him up, as he lifted his leg in a vain effort to try and reach it for himself before almost flopping onto his side.

From above, a large purple barn owl swooped down, its body swiftly becoming engulfed in light before softly landing. “Hey, you find anything?” Amethyst asked.  
Connie shook her head, “No…”

Something about her response seemed to make Amethyst raise an eyebrow, “Hey, you okay?”

Connie shrugged, not really wanting to continue the subject any further. She was already rattled enough as it is. And she didn’t want to stop everything at her expense. This was about looking for Steven.  
And she was sure she wasn’t the only one scared and upset about what had happened. She couldn’t imagine how the others were taking things. Probably much worse.

“Hey, why don’t we call it a night.” Amethyst suggested, “I know humans need rest.”

“No. Amethyst, I’ll be fine. I’m fine. Really.” She said, sounding more frazzled than she would have liked.

Amethyst rolled her eyes, “Alright, but I still say we call it a night. Let’s meet back up with Rose. Maybe they found something.”

It had taken a moment to find the small enclosed hut Rose and the others were confined in. It was initially hard to spot, tucked behind several attractions in a remote corner close to the front gate to Funland. Inside were Rose, Greg, Mr. Smiley, and the policewoman all packed in like sardines as they gathered around a computer monitor so ancient that it looked to be older than her. From out of view, Connie could pick up the labored hum of the computer as it merrily chugged along with processing the data received from one of the many cameras dotted across the amusement park.

“Hey, young lady. You shouldn’t be in here…”

“It’s alright, officer.” Rose insisted, “She’s with us.”

The patrolman simply gave a sigh and turned her attention back to monitor. “Is this him?” she asked, pointing towards the screen.

“Yeah, there’s Steven.” Greg confirmed, “Looks like he was making his way towards the bathrooms.”

“And who is that woman beside him?”

Connie tried to peek over their shoulders to get a better view of what they were looking for. The camera feed was so fuzzy and warped, it was any wonder how they could recognize much of anything. Mr. Smiley’s business couldn’t have been doing that poorly if he had to rely on this, could it?

But sure enough, amidst the sea of digitized blobs on screen, she could just barely make out Steven’s silhouette. His short, curly hair unmistakable to her, despite the distortion of such arcane technology.

Beside him looked to a woman. In comparison to Steven, she looked to be as tall as Rose. Through the camera’s distortion, Connie could just begin to recognize a few noticeable features. Her hair looked to be slicked back and held in place with a tight knot. She sported a broad, sturdy build hidden beneath a set of baggy clothes.

Something about this person seemed… familiar to Connie. Another rousing suspicion formed in the back of her mind. But to prove it, she knew she needed to find one more key detail. Through the black and white blurriness of the feed, she focused on the figure’s hands. Though easy to miss, she soon enough spotted it. A triangular gemstone atop her right hand.

“Is that… Fire Agate?” Rose said in shock.

Greg scratched the bristles of his beard in confusion, “Wait, isn’t she that one gem that tricked you and Steven into visiting that fake colony?”

Rose nodded, “Yes, she tried to create a vein of Rose Quartz gems to destroy the Earth just to spite me. She’s the reason I have my Quartz gem now. After we helped save her soldiers once her plan fell apart, she agreed to live here on Earth.”

“That… didn’t seem like the best idea…” Amethyst stated.

Rose almost looked embarrassed by Amethyst’s remark. “She made it pretty clear she and the rest of her gems wanted nothing to do with us.” Rose explained, “And we just assumed if she did still harbor any ill will towards us, we would have access to all of our resources here. She’d have to be insane to fight us on Earth.”

Amethyst shrugged, “Didn’t seem to stop her before.”

“We’ll notify the Sheriff’s office and…”

“Hey, no offence, but you guys are not equipped to deal with gems.” Amethyst said, trying her best not to sound too condescending.

“We’ll deal with finding where she’s taken Steven. I would focus on having a plan set in case she tries to attack Beach City.” Rose insisted, “Steven and the others had collaborated with Mayor Nanefua to come up with plans on what to do if gems ever came to invade. She’ll explain it better than any of us can.”

“Wait, aliens come here often enough to warrant legislation being made to deal with them!” The officer said in disbelief, “Why have we not been told about this!?”

None of them seemed to have a satisfying answer for her, only responding with a awkward shrug while the officer stood there dumbfounded and stammering. “Stars, this town is so friggin’ weird…” she whispered, “I… I’ll contact the Mayor in the morning and work something out. I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help, Mr. and Mrs. Universe…”

“So, it wasn’t really my fault then? That mean I’m off the hook?” Mr. Smiley timidly said, as if to ignite some glimmer of hope.

“Oh-ho, no!” The officer said, as though his statement filled her with newfound gusto, “We’re going to be looking into how long you’ve been running your businesses like this. I’m sure this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

Mr. Smiley seemed to shrink after hearing those words, as he slumped in his beat-up computer chair, resting his head in his hand as the policewoman slammed the door shut with an audible thud, “Hey, uh, for what it’s worth, Mrs. Universe. I am sorry to hear about Steven. He’s a good kid and I hope he’s okay.”

“Thank you.” Rose said, showing the ghost of a smile.

After leaving the tiny ramshackle hut, Connie felt more confused than anything. She had hopped the clues they had found would help shed light on what had happened to Steven. But it felt like when one question was answered, two more would spring up in its place.

Why did Fire Agate take Steven? If she were planning another revenge scheme, why wait until now? Despite how obnoxious she could be, Connie knew she would have been smarter than this. Why not try to be more discreet? And the most troubling questions of all, where did she take Steven? And what was she planning to do to him?

Connie felt her stomach churn. She was meant to be Steven’s knight. They were there when it happened. If ever there was a place for him not to worry about something like this, it was here. But then again, she didn’t exactly help the last time gems came to take him away, did she? For all the training and preparation, she seemed to undergo with the other gems, it seemed to be rather pointless in the end.

This isn’t looking like a good reputation for her. She wondered if any of the other gems had been thinking the same thing. Without the constant training and the ever-looming threat of Homeworld to hang over their heads, it seemed she may have gotten a bit soft.

Without Connie noticing, it seemed her silence had caught Rose’s attention. “You’ve been rather quiet lately.”

Connie tried to brush off any concerns Rose might have, “Oh, just thinking things over…” she said, sounding more aloof than she would have liked. Not that it had seemed to bother Rose.

Rose knelt down to meet her at eye level. Even with visible tear marks on her face, she still looked to her with a soft, serene expression, “Connie, dear, I’m sure this all must feel terrifying for you. I’m so proud of how calm you’ve been through all of this so far.” She said before wiping her eyes, “To tell you the truth. I’m scared. So far it feels like we’re finding more questions than answers about all of this…”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll find Steven no problem, Ma’am.” Connie reassured, trying just as much to convince herself as she was with, “You needn’t worry. Garnet will recruit all the other Crystal Gems. We’re bound to find something!”

Like with Amethyst, it seemed Rose saw past Connie’s words of encouragement, “Connie, dear, is there something you want to tell me?”

Connie began to feel anxious, Rose was already going through enough, but she felt it more difficult to hide how she felt, “Oh, uh, n-no. No everything’s fine. Well, actually it’s not, because Steven is gone, but I just want to help get him back because I know I should have been able to help him and not bother any of you with how stupid I feel, and…”

“Connie.” Rose exclaimed, stopping her short of letting every thought spill out of her head, “A long time ago, someone I loved tried to tell me something like that when they would fret over me. Don’t ever say that about your feelings. Yes, we’re focusing on finding Steven. But if there is something you want to tell me, sweetie, you can tell me.”

“Can I be honest, Ma’am?” Connie asked, already notice her eyes beginning to mist.

“Tell me.”

“I’ve been trying to pull myself together, and it feels like I’m going to fall apart any minute now.” She whispered, “I didn’t want to bother any of you, because this is about finding Steven. But it feels like I just let myself down.”

Rose wrapped her arms around Connie and pulled her into a hug, “Shh, it’s okay. We’re all a little worried. Don’t ever think that about yourself. Steven is lucky to have such a sweet and caring friend in his life. If you’re feeling uneasy, you can always talk to us.”

Connie sniffed and wiped her eyes, “Thank you, Mrs. Universe…”

“Call me Rose, dear.” She said with a smile, “Family doesn’t need to be formal.”

Rose let go, turning her gaze towards the open ocean, “You should get home. Pearl texted Amethyst to let us know that we have all the Crystal Gems assembled to look for Steven. I need to go.”

“Go where?”

“To look for my son.” Rose simply answered, a pinkish glow emanating from her gemstone that soon spread to her entire body. In a split second, Rose’s form took the shape of a large, pink Harpy Eagle.

“Connie, don’t blame yourself for what’s happened. I’m Steven’s mother. He’s my responsibility. This is my fault, but I’ll find him.” She said, spreading out her wings to take to the sky, “If I have to search this planet inside out to find him.”

There was something about the way Rose said those words that sent a chill up her spine, even in the stagnant August heat. It had seemed at least part of her fears rung true. Rose was clearly not taking this well. And if her last words were anything to go by, she dearly hoped they would find Steven soon.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been three months since Steven had mysteriously vanished. Three long, grueling months since they had begun their search. Gone was the heat and sunshine of summer, having long since departed, leaving in its wake only the chilling winds and grayed skies of autumn. 

During that time, Gems from across the Earth had been searching tirelessly to find any possible clues to the location of his captor. Rose had called Earth home for the last five thousand seven hundred and fifty years. But never had she become so familiar to every crack, crevice, nook, or otherwise sequestered square inch of this planet than she had for these short few months. 

With her enhanced eyesight, she stared down from the skies above. Her wings diligently carry her aloft while she gazed down below for any sign of recent gem activity amidst the hulking ruins of the Strawberry battlefields. She tried to single out anything that would have been out of the ordinary, gem ruins cleared of overgrowth, weapons seemingly moved from one place to another if not missing altogether. Hopefully perhaps a written message from Steven himself in the hopes that they would discover them.

But no such luck. She had practically combed this entire ancient battleground, and all that she see from above was nothing, nothing but tired old ghosts. With a heavy heart, she circled back around to meet with the other gems who she had left with. Something she was very much not looking forward to.

Rose returned to her normal humanoid form upon swooping down. Just barely landing without stumbling as she struggled to not fall flat onto her face before finding a nice moss-covered piece of rubble to rest of legs. She once again felt a familiar heaviness begin to swiftly overtake her before she shook her head. Gems may not need to sleep, but they could certainly feel tired, but she wasn’t having it. She didn’t want to think about visions would come to torment her this time around.

“Well, look who it is.” Shouted one gem with mock enthusiasm, “Hello, Rose. You look like shit.” 

Rose’s only response was a mild grumble, partly because she was too exhausted, partly because she didn’t have the energy to argue with anyone. This was a nightmare for her. She had lost the one of the few people on this planet that knew her and wouldn’t think spitting in her face was an appropriate means of greeting her. And now she had to work with said people if she had any hope of getting him back. Not that she held it against them. She surmised that if she was one of them, she probably be right in line, too.

“Don’t waste your energy pestering her, she’s not worth it.” Cried out another gem. Rose could almost feel her ears perk up, she recognized that voice from somewhere. She looked to find the source, spotting a gem that sported a lithe figure, spiky white hair around the rim of her head, and one single eye that doubled as her gemstone. Rose knew who this was, Nephrite, the gem Steven had become so enamored with when he was trying to find a solution to gem corruption. And sure enough, right be her side joined the rest of her crew.

When did they show up? She didn’t remember seeing any of them yesterday. Were they living alongside the other gems on Earth?

Whatever burning questions she had at that moment, she knew they would have to wait. A light erupted from the warp pad as Pearl appeared in front of them, “Garnet has something to share with you all.” She looked to the others before leveling her gaze at Rose, “Oh dear, Rose, you look awful.”

“So I’ve been told.” Rose said, trying her best to laugh it off. From the look on Pearl’s face, it didn’t seem to help. No one said a word to her as they crossed the warp stream back to the Temple. But she could distinctly make out the sound of hushed whispers behind her. 

Not a moment before she could step off of the warp pad after arriving, she lost her footing and greeted the cold stone floor with her face. One gem simply walked past her with a smug look on her face, “Oops.” She said sarcastically before walking away. ‘It’s not worth it.’ Rose reminded herself, already noticing her temper start to flare up, ‘I can’t waste any time.’

“Here.” Someone from behind said while giving a disgruntled sigh. When she turned to face the voice. Sure enough, the Nephrite she had seen was there to greet her with a helping hand, although from the look on her face, she didn’t look to be particularly happy to see her.

“Thank you.” Rose said as she was helped to her feet, “You’re… Centi, was it?” 

“That’s what your son liked to call me.” She answered plainly, “He’s an important friend to I and my crew.”

“How come none of you never came to visit? I would have loved to meet them!” Rose cheerfully suggested.

Centi glared at her with a look that was a cross between disgust and confusion, “Because YOU were there.” She spat.

Rose already felt her heart sink a bit at her words, it was clear this gem was just as annoyed to see her than the rest. She held her head to turned to leave before stopping herself, she remembered she had something to say to her, “Thank you, by the way. My son is lucky to have friends like you.”

Centi seemed to relax a bit, “He’s a good kid, you should have been more careful with him.” Rose could tell she was getting on her nerves the longer they spoke. The two of them seemed to wordlessly agree to end the conversation then and there.

Already Rose could feel a growing anxiousness the moment she stepped foot in the beach house again. She had been avoiding this place the entire time he had been gone. She just tried to shove the memory of it to the back of her mind. It didn’t feel right without him. She was at least thankful that Greg wasn’t here to see her like this.

She hoped her husband would hold it against her, she promised herself she would make it up to him. Right, as soon as Steven is home, they can put this all behind them. Maybe now they would find where Fire Agate was hiding, she could make this right.

While the other search parties gathered in the living room to await Garnet’s arrival, Rose took a moment to slip by towards the bathroom. After getting a chance to get a good look of herself in the mirror, she could tell what the others meant. Her hair was a tangled mess, all around her head she could spot small pink strands that splintered from her once neat ringlets. Bags could plainly be seen under her eyes that not so subtly had reminded her of Blue’s. Her cloths were wrinkled, torn and stained with dirt and grime from constant wear. It was clear that she had not been taking care of herself since he disappeared. 

She must have been so busy with looking for Steven, she never thought to take a moment to take care of herself. As if her entire life had been brought to screeching halt. She could already anticipate the worried remarks Greg would give her if he saw her in such a disheveled state. She knew she didn’t have the heart to argue with him, and with a little time to herself, she tried her best to clean herself up.

Using her gemstone, she formed a new pair of her cloths, tossing aside the t-shirt she had worn up until now before retrieving a new one. To wake herself up, she splashed cold water onto her face. She still didn’t look great, but at least it was something of an improvement before regrouping with everyone else.

The instant she stepped into the living room, she froze. Over the shoulders of the assemble Crystal Gems, Rose made out two new figures that sat beside the front window. One was obviously a Pearl, her hair and dress mimicking that of her owner beside her. There she was, Fire Agate, the gem that took her baby. She looked almost as bad as Rose, with a look in her eye as though she had stared into the face of death itself and wrapped in a comforter. 

Rose wasted no time the instant she saw her. She didn’t know how Garnet had found her, all that mattered was getting answers out of her. She shoved past each on her march up towards her. The Agate didn’t even acknowledge her once she was just a few feet away.

“Rose, wait, she-” Garnet tried to say, but it was too late. Rose grabbed hold of the gem’s collar and hoisted her above her head, “You!” she snarled, “What did you do with my son! Tell me right now, or so help me-”

Bismuth rushed from behind in an effort to pull her away, “Whoa, whoa! Cool it, Rose!”

Rose let go in her confusion, “She took Steven, she-” she felt herself tense up as something touched her shoulder, snapping her gaze to see Pearl’s hand. “Rose, please relax.” She pleaded. 

Rose couldn’t believe the words she was hearing. This was the gem that had taken her son from them and was the reason he had been gone for three months! How could they be so calm!?

“Rose, you need to listen to her.” Garnet explained, “There’s more to this than you think. She may not be the one responsible for all of this.”

Rose blinked in disbelief, “What?”

Garnet gave a sigh of relief, now having finally convinced Rose to listen, “The two of them were all alone when we found them. Her Pearl said she had been missing up until a few days ago.”

“And you believe her?” Rose stammered.

“Not without good reason.” Pearl interjected, “Garnet and I had discovered them hiding in an old Homeworld stronghold near the Tunguska Sea. It was barely standing when we arrived, but we could tell something had happened there recently. Past the front gate, everything was in ruins, and it wasn’t old battle damage, otherwise there would have been signs of erosion. There was also… this.”

Pearl tapped the surface of her gemstone, a small baby blue bubble emerging from the space within. As the bubble landed her hands, she dissipated it to allow what was inside to land safely in her palm. It looked like a piece of sharpened flint. But there was something about it, the way the light caught the dark purple surface that looked to reveal glittering gold stripes. 

However, it would seem she would not have had much time to inspect it before it began to glow violently, the light around it bending and warping into something bigger. Pearl held it at a distance with clear disgust as though it carried a bad odor when it finished taking the form of a disembodied hand.

Rose stared at the marvel with eyes as wide as saucers, “Is that a…”

“A gem shard, likely from one of her Ametrines.” Pearl said in confirmation, swiftly poofing the limb back into shard form before bubbling it once more and tapping the top, sending it to the Temple burning room, “We looked all over… and wherever we went, the floor was covered in shards…”

Rose didn’t know what to say, she felt sick just imagining such a sight in her mind. To think those shards would have likely tried to reform for little reason other than instinct, walking into a dark room to find the floor covered in a writhing, chaotic mess of body parts all desperately trying to pull themselves together.

“It didn’t take long before we found them hiding out in the armory. They didn’t even try to fight back when they saw us.” Garnet stated grimly.

Rose was completely lost. What could have done this to a group of hardened gems? It took every once of restraint to swallow her anger as she turned her attention to her, “What happened?”

Fire Agate didn’t even seem to register Rose’s question, she just sat there, staring down at the floor as though it were ready to suddenly sprout fangs and bite her at any moment. Her Pearl leaned close to speak to her. “My Agate…”

“It’s fine, Pearl.” She said, finally coming to her senses. She looked up to Rose, “You all want to know what happened to me and my soldiers?” she said, “Alright, I’ll tell you.”

Any other sound that had once filled the room had now ceased. Whether by fear or my simple morbid curiosity, they waited as Fire Agate readied herself to tell her tale. She cleared her throat and straightened her posture, looking to the other gems through narrowed eyes, “My gems and I were renovating our old Homeworld military base. We had only been there for approximately seven months. Before that, we had just been wandering across this miserable mud ball looking for a place to call home.”

“It wasn’t much, but she and the others had a connection to that old place.” Her Pearl added, “We thought we could just start over and spend our time in solitude.” 

The Agate seemed to look to her Pearl before giving a heavy sigh, “It started small. Two of my scouts, 3S7 and 3S9 failed to return before sundown one night. We didn’t think much at first, we thought perhaps they had just gotten lost in the snowstorm. But after a few days, I and a few of my best gems left to look into the matter. We assumed perhaps it was some wandering gem shard amalgamation, a leftover from Yellow’s research into forced fusion.”

Garnet looked visibly unnerved at the mention of such monstrosities. Rose could hardly blame her. Fusion was central to her very being, and to see it twisted and made foul by Homeworld’s past cruelty would make any gem’s stomach churn. Even now, it was not uncommon for the other gems to see them in the wild. Lost and rabid in their search to make themselves whole again. And that wasn’t even mentioning the horror of the ‘Cluster’. 

Fire Agate suddenly gave an icy cold chuckle under her breath, her lip creasing into a wicked grin “Funny, as gems, the cold never bothered us. The real danger was simply that… you’re all alone out there. There’s no Homeworld to call for backup, no other military camps stationed elsewhere. It’s just you. All by yourself. If you call for help, no one can hear you. If you died, no one would notice… The world would just keep spinning... It’s a funny thought.” Her smile slowly melted away as she continued, I had never thought about that, at least not until I found it. And whatever it was, it turned out to be much, much worse.” 

A shiver crawled up her spine at the thought, “I remember it had your face.” She said bluntly, point to Rose, “I didn’t get to look at it for long until…” Fire Agate paused, her eyes darted back and forth to try and find some explanation to fill the gaps of time in her head, “I… don’t know. One moment I was staring down a figure born from my worst nightmares, the next… I saw… him.”

“Wait, you mean you saw Steven?” Pearl asked, scooting closer to listen for any thing she would deem important.

Fire Agate gave a nod in confirmation, “Yes… I… don’t remember much, what I do recall was that he was trying to say something to me. It had to have been important. Something about… Telling Rose ‘she’ was here.”

“Who was he talking about?” Garnet asked.

Fire Agate shook her head in defeat, “I don’t know, after that, he dissipated my form and must have hidden my gem in the snow. He seemed so frightened about something and seemed to be in a hurry. When I came to, I wasn’t sure whether all of it was a dream or not. That was, until I returned to find my fortress in ruins, and my gems…” She paused, not wanting to elaborate on that subject any more, not while it was still so fresh in her mind, “And if you’re here demanding to tell me where your Steven is just one after seeing the devastation of my home, then all of it must have been real.”

“Then you don’t know where Steven is, do you?” Rose questioned, struggling to hold back her frustration. Fire Agate shook her head, “No, no I don’t. But if he’s with that thing, then he’s long gone.” She said with a sense of smug self-satisfaction, “Probably dead, or worse. The poor thing. I’m sure it must feel like torture knowing you weren’t there for him…”  
Rose could feel her hand clenched into a tight fist. Bismuth grabbed her shoulder from behind to hold her back as Fire Agate’s quite laughed erupted to a mad cackle, “He never stood a chance, I guess his mother didn’t love him enough.”

It was like a spark lit up for Rose, she knew this gem was only saying this to get to her, to make her lose her cool, but she didn’t care. Rose lurched forward, slamming her fist against the Agate’s nose before bashing her head against the wall, “Where is he!? Where did you take my son!?” she screamed, Garnet rushing to pull the two apart, “Do you seriously expect me to believe a word of what you just said!? I saw you! I saw you take him from us! You think I’ll just sit there and take this all lying down!?”

Fire Agate only smiled, “It doesn’t matter if you believe me.” She said, “We’re all dead anyway. And no Diamond can save us now…”

Before the Agate could say another word, Bismuth grabbed hold of her arm, prying her gem off to dispel her form. After securing the gem in a bubble, she handed it off to the Pearl, “Hold onto that, I don’t think we’re not done with her yet.” She calmly explained.

“Rose, STOP! You need to calm down.” Pearl pleaded.

“What I NEED is to go back out to look for my son!” Rose snapped back, almost falling over as Garnet released her.

“Rose, we’re doing all that we can!”

“And yet we’ve found nothing!” Rose growled, “I imagine the others are just too busy finding ways to enact petty vengeance rather than help the one person who saved them. If you’re not going to help me than get out of my way!”

“Rose, enough!” Garnet demanded, placing herself between her and the others to assert herself, “You are not in charge here, I am. And I am warning you, watch your attitude! You’re not the only one here who cares about Steven!”

“At least I’m the only one that never took their grief out on him!”

The instant the words left her mouth, she froze. The three of them looked to her in stunned silence. Pearl simply dashed off towards the Temple, tears trailing down her cheeks as she covered her mouth with her hand. Rose wanted to say something, but she already knew there wasn’t anything she could say to make things better.

“I… I have to go.” She simply said, shifting into the shape of a hawk before taking to the skies, the others doing nothing to stop her.


	4. Chapter 4

‘Stupid’ Rose thought to herself, ‘Stupid, petty, and selfish!’

For the past few hours, she had sat at the edge of the hill overlooking Beach City, the anger she felt with such zeal now pointedly being pointedly directed towards herself. Stars, how could she have been so petty? The worst of them of course had been Pearl. Oh, poor Pearl. The look of shock and betrayal on her face was now forever burned into her memory. So much for promising to be a better friend. She didn’t deserve that. None of them did. She had no excuse to lash out at them like that.

All this time worrying about Steven had clearly clouded her judgement. Left her unable to focus on anyone but herself.

She considered it a relief that Steven had been absent to see her then. Oh, what he would have done if he saw her lash out at the gems in such a despicable manner. He’d would have been ashamed of her. She was, at least.

Part of her wanted to leave then and there, to continue the search alone, especially at the thought of all the other Crystal Gems having witnessed what had happened and deciding to leave, at last fed up with her antics.

But every time the thought of departing entered her mind, her body would ache from exhaustion and pin her to her chosen spot. They had been searching for months. And in all that time, she had never once stopped to rest. Day and Night, she toiled with the others to turn over every stone, every inch of land to no avail.

But she would have scoured the Earth entire for a century if it would bring him home sooner. But at this point, she wondered if it ever really would…

‘No, I can’t lose hope.’ She told herself, ‘Steven would never give up on me, I mustn’t give up on him…’

Already, the sky above had all but completely darkened, the stars revealing themselves through the final dwindling rays that shone through the gloomy late autumn sky. Dark enough, at least, to notice a set of bright lights fast approaching from behind her before coming to a sudden stop. She turned to face the light in time to spot Greg as he exited his van.

“Rose, hun, please don’t run.” He said frantically, “We need to talk.”

Rose’s heart soared briefly at hearing his voice for the first time in weeks, “Greg? How did you find me?”

“The others told me what happened, and I figured you went someplace to brood. And I thought what better place than Brooding Hill.” He said with a shrug.

Rose already felt her cheeks warm at the thought of choosing such a banal spot to hide and lose herself in her thoughts, not realizing its prior reputation. It seemed that she certainly didn’t make it hard for them to find her. “And those?” she asked, gesturing to the pizza boxes in his hand.

“I thought it would help make you feel better.” He reasoned.

Although she lacked the biological need to eat, she could already hear her stomach growl eagerly at the aroma of melted cheese and seasoned meat. Maybe just spending a moment with Greg to quietly eat her feelings away would help make the night pass sooner. 

Before she could properly stand up, she was immediately met with a hard thud to her face. She couldn’t even tell what had happened while she fell to the ground in a daze, her vision doubling as she tried to identify what struck her. After a moment to recover, she saw Bismuth towering over her, striking her fist into her palm.

“B-Bismuth?”

“That was for making Pearl cry!” The Rainbow-haired gem coldly stated.

Rose sighed and shrank a bit, “I deserved that…” 

“We didn’t come here to fight!” Garnet said, appearing from behind the van along with Amethyst and Pearl, “Like Greg said, we came here to talk.”

Each one of them had gathered around, circling the stack of pizza boxes that had been placed in the center. Greg expectedly took a spot beside Rose, the later leaning into him being all too happy to just be around someone that wasn’t angry with her… that she knew of. Part of her was at least happy to have him here, she knew he always felt safe around her, and her the same. 

Aside from the slim comfort that provided, however, everyone else had been suspiciously quiet. Amethyst had already begun to munch away at one of the pizzas as the rest took turns exchanged uncomfortable looks as Garnet seemed to thinking hard about what to say.

“I know it feels like we’ve been chasing our tails for the last three months now. Like we’re just going in circles with no clear path to follow in finding Steven. Whether there’s truth to Fire Agate’s story or not, we have to accept that we’re back to square one.” Now the group had become as silent as the grave, the morbid truth now having been put to words hitting each of them like a brick.

“I know you miss him terribly, Rose, we’re all desperate to bring him home. So, I can forgive you for being… on edge… but right now you need to try let the rest of us handle things.”  
Rose felt puzzled by what Garnet had said, “I don’t understand.”

“The other Crystal Gems will take over the search across Earth.” Pearl clarified, “Garnet and I will see if we can’t get any more details of Fire Agate’s location was when she last saw Steven...”

The news came as little relief for her. It still didn’t feel the same as her being out there with them. But still, she wanted to hope that perhaps they would accomplish more with her out of the way. So many gems searching such a wide space, they’d have to find something.

‘But what about me?’ she thought, ‘Could she really relax in the comfort of her home with the thought of her son shivering somewhere out of sight from her. Afraid and alone, or worse, at the mercy of some malevolent stranger? Did she not owe it to him to be the one to helm the search and live up to her promise?’

“Rose, none of us blame you for all of this, and neither would Steven.” Greg assured, “I know you wanted to be there for him, but you’re not helping him by running yourself ragged like you have been. Steven would never want you to tear yourself apart like that.” 

Garnet lowered her visor, her stoic complexion vanishing as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Something about the sight worried Rose, though it was doubtless that all of this had been affecting everyone, seeing her so… distraught was still a shock to the system, “With Steven gone, we need to rely on one another for support now more than ever. We need to be looking out for each other for any reason, especially for emotional encouragement when necessary.” 

“I hate to tell ya this, Rose, but right now, we need you as much as you need us.” Amethyst pleaded, “This is still your family. We can’t just fall apart. We didn’t after we thought you passed away, and we can’t now.”

Rose didn’t know what to say to that. The idea that anyone needed to rely on her had always scared her, from her time as the founding leader of the Crystal Gems to taking the mantle as a caretaker for Steven. But lately, she felt she was barely able to take care of herself, let alone others who would need to look to her for support. She could already feel herself begin to panic a little. But deep down, she could feel some part of her push her. 

This was her family, she would do anything for any one of the five people gathered around her, she owed them that at least. And if her callous comment from earlier was of any indication, than her actions, even after everything, still carried clout among them. Clout she knew she should never have used to hurt them so callously. If she really meant it when she promised to be better, she had to mean it. 

She paused, trying to imagine what Steven would say, “You’re right. I’m sorry for having fallen short. I… I don’t want us to separate without Steven here to anchor us. He may be gone, but Amethyst is right, all of you are still my family. And I need to think about how all of you feel with everything that’s happening instead of just me.”

From the way they looked to her, it seemed that was more or less the response they were hoping for, much to her relief. 

With a heavy heart, she agreed to their terms. The others having settled to simply spend the next few hours in peace before leaving once more before leaving to carry on their own private search, chiefly without her. It certainly had not been an easy decision for Rose, but maybe they had a point. Perhaps a few weeks to take her mind off of things would help. 

Amethyst pounced of the opportunity to finish off the last of the pizza while no one else was looking. Greg, meanwhile had chosen to rest by the side of his van. Bismuth and Garnet sat by gazing up towards the stars above as they listened to Greg strum the notes of his guitar, creating a calming melody of noise to help pass the time. 

It was funny, Rose thought, despite how much stress they were all under, that moments of peace like this could still be found. It was a comforting thought for her. But she knew as long as they were still here, there was one thing left to do before she could end the night with a clear conscience…

Rose tentatively took a spot beside Pearl, the pale gem’s chin resting on her knees as she kept to herself on the edge of the overlook.

“Pearl, is it alright if I sit next to you?” Rose asked nervously. Without a word, Pearl moved to make room for Rose to sit beside her, still not ready to look directly at her as she spoke. “Pearl, I’m sorry for what I said.”

“Apology accepted. I was really just surprised how much that still hurt after everything…” Pearl replied hastily, apparently eager to just drop the subject altogether, which Rose happily obliged. They paused; Rose unsure what to say to her as the two of them looked out over the horizon towards Beach City.

“What am I going to do now?” Rose asked, her voice cracking from how quiet she was.

Pearl shrugged, “Just focus on yourself for a bit, leave the search to us. You can trust us.”

Rose sighed, “I was supposed to keep him safe. I kept thinking to myself that if I could just be there for my baby. Then maybe everything I’ve done… all the failures I’ve committed… maybe I wouldn’t be such a waste of space…”

What she heard next from Pearl was something she definitely unexpected. Rose looked to her to confirm her suspicions, and sure enough. Pearl had almost laughed. It was a subtle, muffled little giggle. As though something about Rose’s words had amused her.

Pearl cleared her throat, “I’m sorry, I’m probably sounding just so inconsiderate. It’s just… do you know who you remind me of?” 

Rose shook her head, Pearl rolling her eyes as she answered, “Me! You remind me of how I used to think! Back when we were together and fighting Homeworld. I would always run blindly towards whatever was in front of you, inevitably get myself beaten to a pulp for my trouble, only for you to rush in and rescue me.”

“You had almost gotten yourself killed so many times.” Rose added.

“I had thought that your life was more important than mine.” Pearl stated, “Steven helped teach me how to fight for myself in time. It’s funny, I never thought I’d see the day where you would be acting the same for someone other than me.”

Rose chuckled, “Well, what can I say? You inspire me.”

“I’d be more flattered if you didn’t try to internalize my bad old habits.” Pearl smirked.

Rose was sure her face more than likely resembled a plump cherry with how warm it felt and much Pearl struggled to hold back another giggle at her expense. For as embarrassing as this night had been for her, she did try to take some measure of joy from seeing Pearl’s smiling face and hearing that adorable little laughed she loved to hear from her. It certainly helped ease the constant repeating memory of her from earlier.

Pearl scooted closer beside Rose, trying her best to reach around her shoulder for a side hug. “Rose. Just take it easy. Maybe after a while, you can join the rest of us again.” 

“Sounds like you don’t think you’ll find Steven anytime soon then, huh?” Rose deduced.

Pearl’s reassuring smile soon faded away, “We’ll find him, Rose. Just have a little faith in us.”

“I wish he were here.” 

Pearl’s hold on Rose tightened, “… Me too…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to say something to everyone who has gotten this far into my fic;
> 
> Firstly, thank you for checking out my work. But more importantly, my laptop has crapped out once again. I’m having it inspected to try and repair it, but sadly this means that I won’t be able to have a new chapter posted until the issue is resolved. I apologize for the inconvenience.


	5. Chapter 5

Garnet sometimes wondered just how many normal human lifetimes she could fill from spending her time wandering Earth. It was a thought that seemed to come up in her mind as she trekked through the icy wasteland, the bitter wind blowing against her face as specs of snow collided with her visor, only to just as quickly melt away.

“Are we sure we can trust what she said.” Peridot chimed in from behind, her feet limply dangling off the side of a floating garbage can lid, “For all we know, everything she told us could have been in her head.”

“Her word may not be perfect, but it’s the best lead we have.” Pearl reasoned, “If it turns out to be nothing, we at least have other gems across the planet looking for him.”

Peridot crossed her legs and rested her head on her hands, “And what if they do find Steven without us? It’s not like we can call them.” She grumbled as she retrieved the tablet on her side and stared into the screen, “I don’t get why humans settle for subpar technology like this, it won’t even get a signal!”

“Then why don’t you just get rid of it?” Amethyst suggested. Peridot paused before clutching the tablet close to her chest, “I could! But… I don’t want to.” She answered, trying her best to avoid looking at Amethyst’s smug grin.

From behind her, a shadow began to loom over her the grew rapidly before a giant wave of fluffy fresh-fallen snow buried her. A few feet away, Lapis giggled as she saw the small Quartz flail in an effort to dig herself out.

“C’mon, Lapis, we can’t waste any time screwing around!” Bismuth scolded, “We’re here to look for Steven!”

Lapis’ smile faded, “Right, I’m sorry. It just felt nice having a bit of fun.” She sighed, “It’s just not been the same without him.”

There was a pause among the group. Nobody wanted to say it, but she had a point, these past few months had been rough on them. The stress was starting to get to them all, Rose especially.

‘Do you still think it was a good idea to remove her from the group?’ Ruby asked.

‘Yes, absolutely.’ Sapphire answered, ‘Rose may not have meant to lash out at us, but she needs to consider how the rest of us feel about everything. We miss him too. And acting that way towards us won’t bring him back sooner.’

Something about it still didn’t sit well between them, but they both silently agreed to drop the subject to spare the discomfort and carry on.

Through Fire Agate’s mad gibberish, they were still able to gleam some information from her, that the last place she saw Steven was someplace covered in snow, and that the distance between there and her old Homeworld stronghold could be cleared on foot. That at least was a start.

Much to her surprise, their search had led them to a small human settlement by the Tunguska Sea. It wasn’t much, just a humble fishing village that looked to have had better days.

It had seemed having Fire Agate as a neighbor had not been the best introduction for their experience with gems, as the mere sight of them sent many scurrying back to their homes for safety. All except one.

He was a great bear of a man, with a bald head and short stubble. He greeted the fusion and her company with a glower as he spoke to them, “What do you want?” he grumbled, his voice as smooth as gravel.

Garnet retrieved a small photo of Steven to hand to the stranger, the picture looking almost like a stamp in his hands, “We’re looking for this person.” Garnet calmly explained, “We think he may be out here.”

The stranger furrowed his brow as he looked back to her, “What is boy to you?” he asked in broken English.

“He’s one of us.” Bismuth answered, “Someone took him from us, and we’re trying to get him back.”

Though he did not move, Garnet could feel the man’s stare scan across the group. His gaze seemed to pierce through their forms to judge their very being, but she wasn’t worried. She knew they all had nothing to hide.

“Have not seen boy.” He answered, handing the photo back to Garnet, “But I and sisters have heard noise from Mountains out East when hunting. Start there. I wish you luck. Many bears. They’re babies, but they’re strong.”

Without another word, he simply turned and retreated to his home.

‘Well, he helped a little.’ Ruby said, trying her best to sound optimistic.

It still didn’t sit right with the fusion, ‘It could have gone better with Rose. She always had a way with humans.’ Sapphire reasoned.

It wasn’t much, but at least they had a clue they may be making progress. She considered it a blessing that she had her own special way to make the journey easier for her, her body radiating intense heat to melt the persistent frost surrounding her when it proved too arduous to cross otherwise.

The heat from her form swiftly cleared away the caked on layers of snow of a nearby tree, only stopping at the furthest most branch. With only a light breeze, a large clump of snow fell towards the ground and disappeared behind a neighboring bush.

As it hit the ground with a plop, the thistles ruffled until a white, round form appeared. It had large paws with claws and black padding underneath. As it awkwardly stumbled to its feet, it curiously sniffed the air before lumbering towards the fusion. Garnet paused, recognizing the creature as a Polar Bear, still young and growing.

“Sorry about that, little one.” Garnet said, making sure to keep her voice down to avoid unnecessary conflict in case the mother happened to be nearby, “We’re just out looking for a friend of ours, don’t suppose you’ve seen him?” she jokingly suggested.

The cub’s ears and eyes twitched as it looked back at the fusion with its beady little eyes. Though through its gaze, Garnet swore there looked to be a sort of… awareness that it showed. As if in response to her request, the small fuzzy creature bolted away, stopping just before leaving her sight as though it seemed to be waiting for her to give chase.

This seemed crazy. It had to be crazy. But after these last few months, if this somehow helped them, she would settle for crazy. ‘Saph, what do you see?’ asked Ruby. Sapphire paused as Garnet adjusted her visor. ‘If we follow that cub, it’ll lead us to Steven.’  
Finally, some good news. “Everyone, follow that bear!”

It didn’t take long to see what their new friend had wanted to show them. Out there in the snow, it stuck out like a sore thumb. A single splotch of color in a sea of all-consuming white. There it was, just hanging on a broken tree branch just a few feet off the ground was Steven’s jacket.

Pearl’s hands shook as she grabbed the discarded garment, “Why would Steven just… leave his jacket out here?” she asked, her voice trembling with worry.

“He probably wanted to leave a trail for us to follow.” Bismuth reasoned, “Hey water wings, see if ya can’t find any more clues Steven left.”

Lapis gave a slight nod, in a split second, her gemstone began to glow as two streams of water jutted from her back to form wings. Before long, she took to the skies and disappeared into the grey clouds above.

“What about the rest of us?” Peridot asked, “We have to do something while we wait for Lapis to come back.”

“Yeah, maybe Peri and I can stay and wait for Lapis, see if ya can’t get anything else out of our little friend there.” Amethyst reasoned, pointing the small cub as it sat close to them and tilted its head curiously.

The further they followed the small cub, the further they seemed to drift from the dense forests or of the frozen tundra from where they had started their search. Instead, they were greeted by the sight of steep cliffsides and rocky terrain as they were led closer to the once distant mountains.

Something about this place seemed familiar to Garnet, something about the sight of the mountains, how their peaks eclipsed the dim rays of the sun that felt as though it wasn’t entirely new to her.

As they pushed onward, they spotted a narrow passage between two opposing cliffs. From the look of it, it had appeared that the rock at some point had been broken, making what would have already been a tight fit into something nearly impossible for anything as big as a human. While the cub itself managed to squeeze through easily, the fusion knew it would not be as easy for her and the others.

“Any ideas, Garnet?” Bismuth asked.

Garnet turned to Pearl, “We may need to shape shift to make our way through there, Pearl, are you comfortable with that?”

Garnet could see Steven’s jacket still clutched firmly in her arms. She looked down to it, then back to them with a look of uncertainty.

Pearl sighed, storing the piece of clothing within her gemstone, “I’ll do it for him.” She quietly said, Bismuth smiled and patted the thin gem’s shoulder, “Thanks, Pearl.”

The three of them focused on their gemstones, their bodies becoming encompassed in light. Soon, their glowing silhouettes began to shrink until before finally settling on a new temporary shape.

Garnet looked to the others, trying her best to hold back a chuckle at just how wildly out of proportion their gemstones looked in their new tiny bodies before pressing on.

“This thing can’t be a normal bear.” Bismuth said, “I haven’t seen its mom anywhere, it’s way too friendly with us. Just something about this doesn’t sit well.”

“Maybe this is an animal Steven helped.” Pearl suggested, “From what Fire Agate told us, it seemed Steven managed to escape his captor, maybe this bear is like Rose’s lion.”

“Then wouldn’t it be pink?” Bismuth suggested.

“Pearl’s theory makes the most sense.” Garnet explained, “Besides, if my future vision is of anything to go by, we’re on our way to reuniting with Steven, and he can explain it himself.”

After waiting so long on the other side, Garnet almost wondered if the little creature had wandered off. But as she and the others emerged from the small nook, there it sat, waiting eagerly for them to continue. What the three of them saw as they resumed their normal forms left them awestruck.

The entire area around them was closed off by the surrounding mountain range, creating a natural bowl effect that would have helped hide this place away from the rest of the world. Below looked to be the rotting remains of a once thriving garden. Black, skeletal trees and long dead, overgrown vines that creeped into every corner and crevice.

In the center, they could spot an elevated plateau connected to where they stood by a single stone bridge that looked as if it were threatening to crumble from anything worse than a nasty look.

At the other end stood a massive stone fortress, caked in snow and ice stood the visage of an angelic, multiarmed figure that loomed over a front gate that bore a suspicious likeness to the top of a five-pointed star. From just atop the statue, she could spot the empty branches of a gigantic tree that had to be in the center of the courtyard.

“Bismuth… are you seeing this?” Garnet asked, not as sure of what she was looking at herself.

“It’s still here.” Bismuth muttered in disbelief, “I thought Homeworld trashed it after we got ransacked.”

“Well, it seems they had gotten to Rose’s garden.” Pearl lamented plucking one of the half frozen, long dead flowers off a vine before it wilted away in her hand, “I’m suddenly glad Rose isn’t here. She’d be devastated to see this.”

Even as they walked through the gates, felt the fresh snow crunch beneath their feet, seeing this place still felt like a dream to them. Although given this place’s current state, perhaps a less positive term was a better fit to describe it.

“Do you remember when Rose first planted this?” Pearl asked wistfully, gesturing to the massive, life-less tree.

Garnet nodded and smiled, “The two of you always used to relax under it whenever either of you had the time. Which during the war, both of you rarely did.”

From behind them, Garnet could hear the sound of tiny claws scrap against the cold stonework. She turned to spot the bear cub scramble its way up one of the winding staircases that flanked the sides of the tree.  
“It must be taking us to Steven.” Garnet said.

It couldn’t be too long now, hopefully. Garnet felt something in her sink at the thought of seeing Steven curled up in some corner alone and too frightened to leave this place alone. But she knew it wouldn’t matter. He’d be safe in their care again. She knew Rose especially would be ecstatic to see her baby boy again. They could soon put this nightmare behind them.

The cub stopped dead in the middle of the room. All agency it had lost as it simply took a spot on the ground and continued to eye the three of them.

“Wait, that’s it?” Bismuth said.

“No, no, this can’t be it!” Pearl stated, her tone quickly growing more distraught, “Steven! Steven, baby, can you hear me!” she hollered out, hoping to hear some kind of response.

“I… I saw that following this creature would lead us to Steven… I-”

“Garnet.” Bismuth cut in, “It’s okay. Maybe we’ll find another clue, or-”

“Wow, you guys were following me all this time and never once guessed it was me. Guess I have gotten good at this!”

The three of them froze on the spot, their attention turned directly to the small bear cub that had just spoken to them in an all too familiar voice. His voice.

“S-STEVEN!?” Pearl stammered in utter dismay.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!”

The cub stood up on his hind legs, at last revealing the gemstone it had previously hidden from them. But as he reverted to his true form, they immediately saw something terribly wrong. His gemstone and skin looked to have been bleached of all pigmentation, rendering their color as stark white. But that wasn’t all.

There was something about his smile, that seemed… off. As if it were just a mere plastic façade, simply a mask for him to wear that hid his true intentions. It didn’t help that he just kept staring unblinkingly at them with his eyes. His Diamond eyes.

“Welcome to our happy home! There’s all kinds of fun stuff we do in here, really helped change the way I see things.”

“Steven… who did this to you.” Garnet pleaded.

“You’re smart, take a wild guess.” He answered, his tone sounding harsher than she would have expected.

“White…” Pearl muttered in sheer horror.

Steven snapped his fingers and winked, “Bingo!”

“I-Is she here now?” Bismuth asked.

“Now why would I go and ruin the surprise if she was here?” he said playfully as if this were some sort of game, “Besides, as long as I have you all to myself, we can fun on our own!”

* * *

Peridot was beginning to find the lack of communication between she and Amethyst to be almost unbearable. Part of her understood why, they were here on mission, and a rather crucial one at that. They were here to help locate and possibly rescue Steven.

But when she found her eyes wander towards the proximity of the gem next to her, she felt an unexplained discomfort from the fact she wouldn’t talk to her.

It was to the point that when she did finally speak up, the sudden noise caused her to jump and nearly fall right off her little floating platform. She frantically grasped the edge of the discarded trash lid before regaining her balance once more. Even having almost made a fool of herself, she felt her cheeks warm and smile crease her lips when she heard the small Quartz giggle.

Amethyst cleared her throat, “Hey, so, it’s been a while. You guys doing alright in Little Homeworld?”

Peridot shrugged, “I guess. Lapis hasn’t really been talking to us after Pumpkin passed away. And Steven’s prolonged absence hasn’t helped.”

Amethyst’s brow furrowed. “You think she’s gonna ditch ya again?”

The small green gem fidgeted with her hands as she tried to banish such unpleasant thoughts from her mind, “I like to think we’re passed that.”

That answer didn’t seem to provide Amethyst with any solace, as she kept looking at her with a worried expression, “Hey, if she does that again, just know you don’t have to take any of her crap.”

“You’re oddly defensive of me, today.” Peridot smirked.

Amethyst sighed, “I just… I remember a few years back when she left and how much it hurt you. I couldn’t stand to see you like that.”

“Thanks, Amethyst.”

“Yeah, no prob.”, The Quartz’s cheeks began turn a darker shade as she nervously rubbed the side of her arm, “So, Peri. I don’t really know how to ask this, but… you and Lapis…”

“Yes?”

“Are you two, like, you know…?” she asked timidly as she bumped the ends of her fists together.

“Know what?” she asked, realization dawning on her as to what the Quartz was implying.

Peridot felt her face grow warm, “O-oh, th-that…Um…well, she can be very… affectionate, but…”

“Hey, it’s cool. I was just wondering, you know, since I thought you and I were pretty tight when you were with us…” she said solemnly.

Something the way Amethyst said that didn’t sit well with her. Of course they two of them were close. She was an invaluable friend when Lapis left her. Was there something else? Was there something she wanted to tell her? “Amethyst?”

She heard the wind a above rush over their head. The fresh snow around them kicked up into the air before just as quickly settling down once more as Lapis returned to the ground below with angelic grace.

“Looks like she’s back, let’s see what she’s got for us.” Amethyst stated, pretending as though their conversation never happened. Peridot made a mental note that this was something she wished to converse with her friend at a more advantageous time.

Now up close, Peridot finally noticed something different with Lapis’ wings. The fluid like nature of her extremities almost gone in their entirety, leaving only a beautiful, glistening, glass-like sheen.

“You see anything?” Amethyst asked.

Lapis shook her head, “No, but I had to come back down. It’s so cold out here that my wings were getting all stiff. Looks like I won’t be flying for a bit until they thaw.”

Amethyst raised an eyebrow, “Why? Ice is still water; can’t you still control it?”

“I could when I was Malachite.” She said, trying to hide her annoyance at the Quartz’s question, “But I just don’t have the strength alone. Water is one thing; I don’t have to fight it too hard to make it do what I want. But ice… it’s like trying to swim through rock.” She admitted, her wings struggling to flex and move from within the frozen casing it had gained, “At least snow isn’t quite as bad…”

Peridot swore she could hear something in the distance. Just small enough to make it difficult for her to pick up on it, but just present enough for her to know it was there. She looked in every direction, trying to pinpoint a place of origin for this sound, but it seemed fruitless, it was the same no matter what.

It seemed she hadn’t been the only one to notice it as well, the other two having grown silent to listen as well. Peridot felt her breath hasten with every minute. The snowfall grew heavier as the forest around them began to recede to a blanket of pure white.

To her left, she heard the sudden crunching of snow followed by the snap of a twig, “Lapis?” she said, turning to face her friend… only to be greeted with nothing. How was that even possible? There were no footprints, not to mention her wings were frozen, where could she have gone?

From behind, she noticed too late the sound of something rushing right toward her…

* * *

Garnet froze as she heard two blood curdling shrieks in the distance. A shiver crawled up her back as she recognized the voices as Amethyst and Peridot. Clearly, they were not alone.

“Steven, we need to go!” Pearl pleaded, “We can take you home! Maybe your mother’s fountain can undo what White’s done to you-”

“And go back to living with you guys?” he scoffed, “Yeah, sorry, I’ll take my chances.”

“Steven, we-”

“I’m bored, who’s up for some Steven tag?”

Without warning, Steven stole Pearl’s footing from under her with a swipe of his legs. He summoned a shield to his left hand and prepared to strike down towards the startled gem before Bismuth rushed to her aid, blocking his shield with a hammer fist.

Pearl scrambled to her feet and summoned a spear from her gemstone, Garnet and Bismuth soon grouping close to her as they waited for him to launch another attack. Garnet could see just by looking at them that none of them wanted to be the aggressor, and she didn’t blame them.

“Steven, I don’t want to fight you.” Pearl begged.

“And I didn’t want to be cheated out of my childhood, but I guess that’s just life.” Steven coldly stated, the words he spoke feeling like daggers to her.

“Steven, you chose to take Rose’s place! You chose-”

“I ALSO CHOSE TO TRY AND MAKE YOU ALL PROUD!” He screamed, his jovial veneer now ripped away, “But that wasn’t enough, was it!? When you knew I couldn’t ever replace her, you decided to take it out on me when it suited you! No matter what I did, I could never give you what you wanted. You didn’t want Steven, you just wanted Rose back. And you never did forgive me for it, did you!?” he paused as if he expected Pearl to give some sort of rebuttal, “DID YOU!?”

Garnet could see Pearl already start to break down, her hands shook as her eyes began to mist, but it seemed Steven was still not done with his tirade, “Everything I did; I did to make you all happy! So that you all could finally look at me as something other than a stupid mistake Mom left at your feet! But we both know I was never what you wanted, I know you made that point loud and clear for me long ago.”

Pearl’s lip quivered as she fought to hold back her tears, “Steven… you know that’s not what Rose meant for you…”

Steven paused to take in her statement, and then chuckled, “Well how was I supposed to know? Like you said, I never even met her.”

Steven darted past them like a blur, and in the blink of an eye, Pearl disappeared in a puff of smoke. In her place, Steven stood triumphant with her gemstone incased in a clear white bubble, “Think that’ll earn me a Pearl point?”

Garnet already felt her head spin. Part of her was still convinced that this couldn’t have been him. He would never hurt any of them! But if he wasn’t him, how would he have known about everything he said to Pearl, “Steven… Put Pearl down…”

Steven tossed the bubbled gem over his shoulder, his fixed smiled and thousand-yard stare still present, “That’s fine, I said pretty much all I felt I needed to anyway. Speaking of which…” he said, raising his hands towards her and the rainbow haired gem, “I have some choice words for the power couple!”

Before they could react, they were quickly encased in their own transparent spherical prison. Each of them tried as hard as they could to break through its defenses, but nothing could break through. At least not quickly.

Bismuth slammed her hammer shaped fists hard against the surface of the bubble with every ounce of her might. Her only reward being little more than a few hairline cracks.

Garnet, however, soon noticed something change with her own bubble…

The space all around her began to recede, the pressure forcing her body curl up tighter and tighter until it became too much. Before they could even register what happened, Sapphire opened her eye to see Ruby look back.

“Steven… what did you do…” she breathed.

A hand grabbed hold of Ruby from behind. Before she could even register that she had been forcibly ripped away from her own bubble, she felt the briefest moments of weightlessness as her body was hurled through the air, only to immediately slam to an abrupt stop.

Her entire body felt like it was pulsating in pain and too tired to even pick herself up. Exhausted, she collapsed to her knees before she felt something yank the back of her shirt and be quickly greeted by Steven’s hollow grin.

“Well c’mon, Ruby, aren’t you going to fight back?” he teased sarcastically, “What happened? Where’s that eternal flame you were talking about?”

Ruby didn’t know if it was because of the feeling of having the wind knocked out of her or the mixture of confusion and anguish that kept her from speaking. She guessed it was most likely both, “Yeah, I bet that it isn’t all that fun when your punching bag PUNCHES BACK, now is it?”

Finally, she felt some of her faculties return to form words once again, “What’re you-”

“I bet it must have felt pretty good when the two of you tagged along with me and Dad to Keystone. You got to take all your frustrations out on us and walk away guilt free. I mean, really, who would defend us, right? We were the reasons you and Sapphire were left to sort out Mom’s mess! Is that why you kept dumping all your problems on me when Garnet didn’t feel like it?”

Ruby felt a pit in her stomach form from the reminder of such a painful memory. It already stung carrying an old shame like that in the back of her mind, but the way Steven recounted it. The venom of his words. It sounded so… genuine.  
Sapphire tried to say something, anything she could think to say to make this ordeal stop, “Steven, that was the one time, and-”

“And when Pearl told us about Mom’s past, who did I have to help wrangle back?” He scolded as he turned to confront Garnet’s other half, “YOU! You made this big talk about being the leader, but all you did was just kept doing what Mom was doing! And why? Because it was easy. You didn’t have to think about it when it involved Lapis, or Bismuth, or even me. But when YOU found out you were lied to. When YOU felt cheated, you left! And if it weren’t for me, Garnet wouldn’t even be here! Some leader you were!”

Sapphire’s mouth was left unhinged, she tried to say something in response, but felt something form in her throat that forced her to choke up, “S-Steven…”

The room filled with a thunderous crash, broken shards of bubble scattering every which way as Bismuth charged for whoever was in reach. Sapphire felt herself being plucked off the floor and tossed over the Rainbow-haired gem’s shoulder as she gunned for the entrance way. In her other hand, the small gem could see Pearl’s gem clutched tightly in her grasp.

“Aww, c’mon guys. You used to love playing with me.” They heard Steven say, his voice ringing in their heads, “I know where you’re going!”

As Bismuth made her way to the bridge, they could feel the ground shake. The thin layer of suspended rock already starting to crumble away at the edges while more debris threatened to forever bury their only escape.  
“Sapphire, you have to get back to Rose, tell her to get whoever she can and come look for us!” Bismuth ordered.

Sapphire could already feel new icy crystals form around her as she was consumed with uncertainty. She knew they needed to find help. But her Ruby… her beloved Ruby. She didn’t want to leave her, not with him.

The one-eyed gem hyperventilated as she felt herself being pulled in two different directions at once. A large hand gently grabbed her soldier, “Saph, I got Pearl, I promise I’ll get Ruby from whoever that is in there.

Bismuth’s gentle expression and softened tone helped carry the weight of her words. Grimly, she gave an affirmative not, picked up the front of her dress, and rushed with all deliberate speed toward her exit, trying to fight how hard it was to possibly say goodbye to so many important gems in her life.

As she made it out, she saw the opening close shut. Against her better judgement, she waited. She hoped maybe they got lucky, maybe Bismuth was able to find another way. But soon enough, her intuition took hold, her sight gave her no such possibility.  
Strange new sounds gave her more clues on what she needed to do next. She had to go get Rose, and whoever they could gather to confront this frightening, new foe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, hey... been a while... Got a new settup! Sad to see my old Laptop I had for so many years die, but such is live, and the new desktop runs like a dream. What wasn't a dream was the fact that my hard drive was fried. And they could only go back so far. Seriously, nothing kills one's motivation to write fanfiction than seeing several months worth of work disappear. 
> 
> I want to say that was the only thing hold this fic, and specifically this chapter back. It was a lot. This, I felt, was going to be the sort of 'make or break' point in the story, and anybody whose been reading my stuff since 'Change' know I can be really anxious about how what readers will take away from my writing. 
> 
> Hopefully, I can get the last three chapters wrapped up and I can move onto my next project. Thank you all for being so wonderful and patient and please, leave feedback to tell me what y'all think!


	6. Chapter 6

The weeks following the other gem’s agreement had not been easy for Rose. For as much as she had wanted to honor their wishes, she had constantly found herself not doing much of anything.

Outside, heavy raindrops rhythmically pummeled the roof of the beach house, and through the windowpanes, streaks of water snaked along the surface. Greg had already turned out the lights and switched on a few lamps throughout the house to, as he explained, ‘set the mood’. She still wasn’t sure what he meant.

So now, here she was, curled up on the futon. A thick blanket wrapped around her, half listening to music through a pair of old beat-up headphones while Greg was busy preparing hot cocoa over in the kitchen.

“That looks pretty cozy.” Greg said with a warm smile and a mug of steaming cocoa in each hand, “Mind if I join?”

Rose couldn’t help but smile a bit at his offer, he knew she had never been one to turn down free cuddles, “By all means.” She said, holding her arms out.

Greg gingerly place the mugs on the coffee table before nuzzling into a spot on her lap as he rested his head in the crook of her neck.

“You’re really sweet for wanting to stay here with me. I know I’m not the best company to have right now…” Rose said somberly.

“Rose, don’t worry about it.” Greg reassured, “I know after everything you just needed a moment to process everything. Besides, I figured you didn’t want to be left alone.”

“You’re not going to try to talk to me or anything?” Rose asked.

Greg paused, “Honestly, Rose? I really needed this, too. I know I’ve been trying to act hopeful and everything. But these last months… they’ve been so draining for me. I’ve been trying my best to stay optimistic and believe myself when I think it’ll work out and that the others will bring him back.” he explained, “But I really needed a moment to just accept how much this all hurts and how much I miss him. It feels like losing you all over again.”

Rose felt her heart sink at that. She had never heard Greg speak with such resignation. The life and energy he normally displayed all but completely gone. He didn’t sound angry, or even sad. He just sounded completely and utterly drained.

Rose already felt a little guilty knowing he was feeling as lost and confused as she was over Steven. And yet, he still took the time to do something for her. She gave a quick kiss to the top of his head along with a tight squeeze, “Greg, I miss him, too. But you shouldn’t be ashamed for feeling this way. And if it’s any comfort, having you here already makes me a little better.”

Greg smiled and reach up to kiss her cheek, “Right back at ya, hun.”

For all that they had on their minds, Rose couldn’t help but smile at that. The unpleasant circumstances aside, this was… nice. Greg curled up next to her, each snuggly wrapped in the embrace of a heavy blanket, the smell of hot cocoa permeating in the cool, late autumn air. The soothing rumble of rain outside complimented by the sound of music through her headphones.

With how comfortable she felt, she wasn’t surprised to feel her limbs grow heavy. Her vision narrowing as her eyelids were nearly ready to close shut and let her peacefully drift to sleep. But she finally closed her eyes, she felt the sting of bright light.

“I’ll get that.” Greg whispered, already wriggling his way out the cocoon they wrapped themselves in to greet their guest at the warp pad, “Hello? You guys find… holy cow. Rose, I need you!”

Rose snapped almost instantly from the dream-like trance and bolted towards the warp pad. The only ones there were Greg, who was sitting on the edge of the warp and was busy consoling an extremely distraught and shaken Sapphire.

Rose knelt to meet her at eye level as she tried to make sense of everything, “Sapphire? Sapphire, what happened? Where’s Ruby? Where are the others?”

Sapphire looked as though she had seen a ghost, the floor beneath began to freeze as she struggled to form a proper sentence before breaking down, “They… she…”

Rose gently placed her index finger on Sapphire’s lips. She was clearly unnerved by what happened, but they had to get her to slow down and collect herself. “Shhh… Sapphire, you’re okay now. Just take it slow.” She reassured, “Just tell us what happened out there.”

Sapphire took a deep breath and wiped the stream of frozen tears from under her eye and nodded, “Here’s what happened...”

* * *

  
Pearl had been uncomfortably silent for the past few hours. Bismuth could tell right away something had changed since she reformed. It had looked like Pearl hadn’t bothered to put the normally obsessive amount of care and attention she had put into her form, looking more like she had just rolled out of bed after a particularly miserable day.

Her jacket hung loosely over her torso, one sleeve hanging down one of her arms, her pants and shirt looking wrinkled and worn. Her hair, normally straight and clean, was now ruffled and messy. It also didn’t help that she kept looking at her like a kicked puppy, showing the dark rings under her eyes as though she had crying her eyes out for hours before reforming. Stars, it hurt so much to see her like this.

However, Bismuth tried to be ever the optimist, despite the several tons of rock that precariously hung over their heads, only failing to crush them both by way of friction forcing them to interlock and stop dead in their descent and forming almost a protective dome around the space where she had formed a bubble.

Still, though, she was sure they would find a way, if not just for Steven’s sake, then for Pearl, “Okay, it doesn’t seem like they’re looking for us right now. We’ll just need to lie low and wait for the cavalry to come for us.” Bismuth looked back to the pale gem hugging herself, her body shivering. “Pearl, you holding up okay?”

“I’m fine, Bismuth.” Pearl mumbled.

“You don’t look fine.” Bismuth said, “You want to talk about it?”

“You already know it’s about Steven.” Pearl said as she stared toward the ground.

“Pearl, I know you’re shaken about what White did to him, but we can still save him! Sapphire will come with backup and we can bring him home!” Bismuth reassured, placing a hand on her shoulder. But it seemed to be of little comfort for Pearl, “It’s more complicated than that, Bismuth.”

Bismuth huffed, “It’s just some old crap White’s making him say to get under your skin.”

Pearl still didn’t seem convinced, “Didn’t sound that way to me.”

There was clearly something Pearl wasn’t telling her. Something that happened between her and Steven. But whatever it was, whatever may have happened, she knew Pearl had to tell her. Especially if it was upsetting her this much.

Bismuth sighed and took a seat on the ground. She waited for a moment before Pearl took a spot in her lap to join her. As she did, Bismuth pulled her into as big a hug as she could muster, “Okay, tell me about it.”

There was a definite pause from Pearl, almost as though she were scared to share what she knew with her. “Bismuth…When Steven was born, I hated him.” The space around them was so quiet, Bismuth was sure she could hear a pin drop, “Or rather, I hated the thought of him. I had spent so much of my time serving Rose, and the thought of him taking that away from me after she fell for some human, it… it stung.”

Bismuth swore her vision was getting blurry from just the sadness of her tone. The sense of loss she clearly still carried. Whether Rose was back now or not, she still had to go on for so many years assuming she was gone. Though fourteen years wasn’t long at all for gems, for Pearl, it must have felt like a lifetime.

And she still wasn’t done, “But I knew he was what she wanted, so I knew to keep my distance at first. And whenever I felt he got too close, I would snap, if nothing than to make myself feel better after losing her.” Pearl recalled her past actions with nothing but shame, her inflections dripping with disdain for the person she was and the things she did.

“But soon enough, we grew close, and I started to see how much of the person I loved was still in there. By the time I realized how much I cared about him, I knew the damage was done.” Pearl’s voice began to crack as she tried to fight back another round of tears. She tilted her head to look up towards Bismuth with a look that broke the gem’s heart, “Everything he said to me? I did that, I made him feel that way. I hurt Rose’s baby, and now I helped drive him away from us.”

Bismuth wasn’t quite sure how to unpack everything Pearl had just told her. She knew from when she first met Steven that he had struggled living under Rose’s shadow. But now this placed it under a new, much harsher light. Not to mention the idea of Pearl behaving the way she described seemed so foreign to her. Pearl? Her Pearl? Acting bitter and cruel to something so near and dear to Rose, of all gems?

But that had to be the case with how earnest Pearl was being. It made sense how she wouldn’t otherwise feel comfortable sharing these feelings with anyone, not even someone like her. And it only made her current state all the more tragic now that she was given proper context.

Then again, she wasn’t the only one close to him that had hurt him, or at least tried to. She felt a pit in her stomach as she recalled her journey through Steven’s memories… of the two of them in the forge… of a younger Steven weeping and begging for his life. And of the guilt that still haunted her afterward.

“Pearl… I’ve hurt him, too. I’m not proud. At all. But I won’t deny it. But you? I know that isn’t who you are.” Pearl looked back at her confused, a stray tear still crawling down her cheek.

The rainbow-haired gem paused as she mulled over her next words very carefully, feeling more than a little nervous of what she was going to tell her, “I know, deep down, Steven cares about you. And more than that, he looks up to you. And who wouldn’t? You’re the sweetest, most patient, most loving gem I know. And that’s why I… I love you, Pearl.”

Stars danced in Pearl’s eyes as she stared back at Bismuth, her eyes as wide as saucers. She was growing nervous, as Pearl wasn’t saying anything. Was it too soon? Did she overwhelm her? Maybe now wasn’t quite the time to-  
Before she could even finish the thought, she felt Pearl’s hands grab onto the sides of her face and pull her close to her. For a split second, she felt their lips connect before Pearl let go, her normally pale cheeks warmed completely to a distinct shade of baby blue. “I love you too, Bismuth.” She said, her voice still quiet and shaky.

Bismuth paused to regain her breath and process what had just happened. When it finally clicked, she couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the two of them, fresh tears already crawling down her cheek, “Good, now please don’t cry, or you’ll have me bawling.”  
Pearl chuckled, wiping away a few more tears from her eyes, “I’m sorry…”

Bismuth gently took hold of Pearl’s hands, they looked so small and dainty compared to hers, “When we get out of here, after this is all over, you make sure to give Steven a hug and you better tell him how much he means to you, okay?”  
Pearl gave little nod, a glimmer of confidence returning to her eye, “Alright. I promise.”

* * *

Rose hadn’t spoken a word to anyone since she had left, when Sapphire had explained how they found Steven, and what happened to them… Rose swore she was going to explode.

She should have known. ‘Of course, she would do something like this!’ she thought. For all her pomp and her claim to have moved on and learned from her mistakes, Rose should have known White would never have accepted her forgiveness.

And this, this sounded just like the kind of thing the White she knew would do! She almost took perverse pleasure in taking something Rose loved and twisting it into something horrible. She swore it was her way of reminding the now former Diamond where White’s place was on the totem pole.

After all, it was what she had done to her first Pearl…

Rose felt a pit form in her stomach at the thought of her. Much to her shame, she had yet to summon the heart to see her, and she knew the longer she delayed their reunion wasn’t helping. But whenever she meant do it, she would get cold feet and back out.  
After all, what would she think of her? Would she think that she abandoned her? That she simply ran away without so much as sparing a thought to her friend that she left at White’s mercy?

But as Rose strode through the banks of flaky, white snow in search for Steven, she thought now would be the perfect time to pay a visit to Homeworld. She would make sure to make amends with her friend, maybe even say hello to White… by shoving a sword through her smug face.

But she had her priorities first. She needed to take Steven home, THEN make White answer for what she had done. This now was… was she even in the right place.

Of course, she would no better then to go trudging off in the snow with nothing but her intuition, and Sapphire had been kind enough to give her directions.

Only a few short hours ago did she wander past a small fishing village along the Tunguska sea. And now she found herself immersed within an almost picturesque wintry paradise. She had hoped it would have been soon enough to track any leftover footprints. But either she had gotten lost, or they had since been buried by fresh snowfall.

Sapphire noted finding Steven within the remains of an old Crystal Gem fortress, one that once house a sprawling garden all around the plateau from where the fortification stood. But the last time she had been there had been thousands of years ago, and sadly, she found her memory to be lacking.

They had to have left something, some clue to their presence…

Some bumped her foot as she took another step. Through the snow, she heard it give off a dull, metallic clang. Wasting no time, she dug the unknown object from its hiding place and held it up to inspect it. It looked to be a metal trash can lid. But out here? This was too far away to have been used by any human. But there was one person Rose thought of who made use of something like this…

Branches rustled, the snow behind her crunched. She wasn’t alone.

She wasn’t sure what to expect when Sapphire explained the state they had found Steven in. But whatever she imagined; she knew now the reality was far, far worse.

The figure perched against a nearby tree, staring blankly at her certainly resembled her son, or at least looked like some convincing replica. As though it were some gray and white marionette of the real thing. She could already feel her breath tremble and overwhelming urge to snap her gaze away in horror.

It was her first Pearl all over again, like a scene from her worst nightmares when she envisioned his life after his birth. This should never have happened to him, not after everything she did to distance herself from that hag. He didn’t deserve this. Not her Steven. Not her baby boy.

“Hello, mother. Look who finally decided to step up and be a parent.” Steven mocked.

Stars, he still had his own voice. This was going to be harder than she thought. But she had to do this, she had to make this right for him. Rose cleared her thought and gathered herself. She couldn’t let her anxiety consume her now, not with Steven’s wellbeing on the line. “Steven, I know White is making you say this. You need to come home with me, we can put an end to this.”

“Actually, I think you and I need to have a talk first.” He responded. The snow at his feet billowed out as he lept towards her feet-first. With a barely a moment to respond, Rose summoned a shield to her arm. Though most of the force was absorbed, she was quickly reminded of the gap in strength her Quartz gem left her in comparison to her old gem.

Rose’s arm throbbed in pain, but no sooner did she have a chance to recover before Steven was back on the offensive with a left hook barreling in the direction of her face. Just as quickly, she managed counter is attack with another shield, and just like before, her right arm was now stricken with a terrible pain.

Something about this wasn’t right, she remembered being faster than this. Why was Steven so much slower? Could it have been simply a lack of experience? But if he were made into one of White’s thralls, that wouldn’t be an issue. Physical limitations of his human body? Maybe, but that hadn’t stopped him from utilizing other, arguably more extravagant powers.

But as Rose struggled to raise her arms to defend herself, a new theory presented itself. One that made her stomach churn. He was moving slower on purpose to wear her down. He wasn’t hindered, he was simply toying with her.

The snow behind Steven was kicked into a blinding flurry behind his as he charged forward. She wanted to run, but she knew she couldn’t hope to outpace him. With no other immediate options, she raised both her hands, biting back the stinging pain as she summoned one massive shield.

The force of Steven’s blow echoed through the forest like thunder, the surface of her shield cracking, but by sheer luck, his held true. Steven looked back to her through the pink, translucent surface with that same unnerving glare, “Let me ask you, Mom. Was it nice?”

“What?”

“Leaving everything with me. Watching through your gem as I tried to untangle every twisted thing you did? Did it feel good knowing it wasn’t your problem anymore?” Steven tapped his finger against the shield. For a moment, nothing happened. But soon after, a new dent splintered its way outward before it the structure fell apart like glass.

Rose winced at his biting remark, “Steven, that’s not why I had you…” she pleaded, try to sound as sincere as possible.

“But you had to have thought of that, right? It had to have crossed your mind what the others were going to do without you. I can only hope I lived up to your expectation as your perfect little scapegoat.” He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. In Rose’s momentary distraction, Steven rushed beneath her to throw off her footing, leaving her to tumble face first into the snow.

Rose felt a pang of guilt pierce her like an arrow, even if she knew this was more than likely White trying to get into her head, hearing Steven berate her like this stung, “Steven, you don’t understand…” she insisted.

Steven scoffed, summoning a shield of his own in his hand, “Really? Because I think I understand perfectly. You didn’t love me, you loved how I could be of use to you. And all it cost me was my childhood, my self-esteem, my safety… Lars’ life.” Rose noted a guttural shift in Steven’s tone as he listed that last one. She had never heard her child speaking with such disdain his voice.

But she had to push that aside, she couldn’t let herself be too distracted now, she knew she had to do this save him. She waited for him to make the first move. Once she saw the glint of his shield in the dim sunlight, she lept from her spot and prepared to make a counter assault upon her descent.

But as she readied herself to bubble him, she felt something hard strike against her abdomen and knock the wind right out of her. Dazed, she crashed to the ground, too battered to move. Steven knelt by her face, his Cheshire grin almost taunting her.

“It didn’t cost you a thing in the end, did it? Especially since you had a front row seat to everything the whole time. And hey, even if you really were gone by the time I would have realized that you used me, you would have gotten away with it!” Rose was too exhausted to give a retort, she slowly tried to creep her way back up, but she felt her entire body ache when she tried.

“Aren’t you proud of yourself, Mom? You got what you wanted, right? Aren’t you happy?” He asked in an overly condescending, biting tone as though he were scolding a child.

Finally, Rose recovered enough to speak again, “Of course, I’m not, Steven! I never wanted any of you to get hurt, much less you! I love you so much.”

Steven chuckled and shook his head, “You see, I want to believe that…But after everything I’ve learned, I don’t know what to believe from you.” Tears began to flow from Rose’s eyes. It couldn’t end like this; she couldn’t let her take her Steven away. He was to be different from the others. She briefly got back on her feet; her balance supported by a tree. Her vision blurred, her balance was noticeably off, “Fight’s over, Mom. Quit embarrassing yourself.”

With nothing left to keep her going, Rose felt her vision fade to black…

* * *

Bismuth tried her best not to disturb too much of the loose rock that still loomed over her and Pearl. Finding their way out was like trying to play one of Steven’s human games, she never could remember the name, but she recalled it involving players to safely removed a small blocks of wood stacked together from the bottom and moving them to the top without the entire structure collapsing.

The only difference here that Bismuth noticed being that if they failed, the rocks would crush them. But hey, no pressure, ignoring as well that the two of them had to also be extremely quiet. Neither of them didn’t want to find out the hard way if Steven, or the thing that was calling itself Steven, was just outside waiting for them.

She looked back to Pearl, herself busy meticulously moving large chunks of debris away, only pausing briefly to look back at her with a smile.

She had hoped their little heart to heart helped things, but she could tell the moment Pearl looked away how much it still bothered her. She swore, White Diamond was going to get hers once they were out.  
“Hello? Is anyone in there?” a voice from outside called out.

They froze, it couldn’t be, could it? Did they really hear that or was it just in her head? Bismuth looked to Pearl, who appeared just as puzzled.

They waited to see if they would hear it again, maybe Sapphire was able to get help at last.

“Can anyone hear me?” it said once more. There was a familiar softness to it, but she struggled to immediately recognize it through the several feet of solid rock.

“Please, if anyone’s in there, say something!” Finally, it clicked.

“ROSE!” Pearl cried out.

“Pearl? Oh, my stars, are you alright? Is anyone else down there?”

Pearl pressed her face close to what she assumed to the spot that was closest to the surface “Yes! Me and Bismuth are trapped under all this rock, we need help!”

“Don’t worry, I have others here that were willing to join me!”

Bismuth couldn’t help but find something odd about that. There were gems that were willing to help Rose? The number of gems she knew that didn’t hold her in utter contempt she could count with one hand. But perhaps Sapphire helped to steer them to Rose’s aid, and most of them respected Garnet more than they hated Rose.

Outside, Bismuth could hear the sound of stone scrape against stone. Before long, a sliver of light began to bleed though the gaps between pieces. When a big enough opening was finally made, Pearl paused and moved aside, “After you.” She whispered.

Bismuth gave a peck on her cheek, “Pretty ones first.”

Pearl blushed a bit at that and took Bismuth’s hand, “Then we both go. Together.”

The two stayed close beside each other as they made their way to the surface. Bismuth was the first to exit, making sure to offer Pearl a hand to help her back up. They stopped for a second as they looked into each other’s eyes.

But no sooner were they free did Bismuth notice an icy hand grab hold of Pearl and hoist her into the air. Bismuth tried to retaliate, but found her arms quickly encased within their own frozen restraints. She looked around to find who was responsible, but what she saw she almost didn’t want to believe.

She recognized them as the others gems from their group; Ruby, Amethyst, Peridot, and Lapis. Just like Steven before, all color had been bleached from their forms, their faces blank and doll like as they moved in an almost robotic manner. All except one, her pink mane and stout physique made her almost unmistakable.

“R-Rose?” Bismuth stammered.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” She chuckled, greeting the confused gem with a bow, “Rose Quartz, Facet 9, Cut 1NK. At your service.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, two more to go. Tried not to throw people off too much give how much of a gut punch last chapter was. If you perused through the comments of the last one, you may have noticed someone point out the twist that I had planned. I would like to say that person... you were half-right. I regret to say I somewhat deceived you, but I wanted to make sure you were still surprised by the end.


	7. Chapter 7

Rose’s head spun and her limbs ached as she awoke. The first thing she felt was her exposed cheek laying against the cold stone surface, the wind howling in her ears as she shook off the light dusting of snow that had accumulated during her unconscious state.

Her eyes adjusted to the dim glow of sunlight as she took a moment to inspect her surroundings. It looked to be the courtyard to an ancient gem castle. The crumbling structure showing signs of a time where it had served as a benchmark of quality craftsmanship, with smoothed out stonework and worn, intricate etchings along the walls and floor. Rose recognized the visages of once colorful figures as depictions of gem fusions.

In the middle of the courtyard, in a circled off space of its own stood what was once the centerpiece of the entire stronghold, a towering Oak tree. Rose remembered having first planted it herself. How she went on to cultivate a thriving garden around it as well as on the area below her with her gift over organic life. It amazed her how she could create life even in such a harsh, cold land.

She smiled at the times when she and Pearl had the freedom to lay beneath it and enjoy one another’s company. They would fantasize of what to do when the war was over, of the life they would have together. Of the beautiful new home that she would build with the other gems…

But now as she looked to the bare, blackened branches that swayed in the chilling breeze, surrounded by the withered remains of long dead weeds, she felt only sadness. What was meant to be an oasis in the frozen heart of this remote land was now just another ghost of her past that haunted her.

“Rose…”

She stopped, almost flinching as the voice pierced the deafening silence. At the base of the tree, she could hear the rustling of vegetation as she spotting something making its way out of the shadows.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Rose. For so long. Feels like we never get to see each other these days.”

Rose didn’t want to believe what she was seeing, her heart already couldn’t bear to see her precious Steven enthralled by White’s will, but she felt her heart sink to new depths as she witnessed Pearl made into but another one of her victims.

The way Pearl moved certainly didn’t help matters, it was the furthest thing from natural. Shoulders slack, head tilted to the side, a noticeable limp helped make her movements stiff and awkward. Like a marionette being led by an amateur puppeteer. Rose instinctively took a step back as Pearl shambled her way towards her, glaring at her with that wide eyed, unblinking stare and that doll like smile.

“What’s the matter, Rose? Do I not amuse you anymore? Have you had your fun with me? I suppose I should have expected that. After all, you were a Diamond. And I was just some lost Pearl.”

Rose didn’t know if it was guilt or fear that kept her from forming the words necessary for a proper response, so she simply settled with both.

“Oh, that’s just too bad. And here I thought you and I had something special. I gave you my heart, Rose. But you had to go and shatter it.” Pearl’s tone grew more sinister, from amidst the tangled mess of dried out vegetation, she drew out a rusted-out sword. She continued to stiffly make her way towards her, the blade emitting a horrid noise as it dragged along the stone floor. “I think it’s only fair I shatter yours in return.”

Rose bolted past her, making her way towards the front gate, only to find it blocked by fallen rock. Thankfully, she knew she could clear it using her natural Quartz strength, but as she reached to remove the first boulder, she felt an icy cold hand grab hold of her shoulders.

With no time to react, Rose was ripped away and tossed helplessly into the air. She crashed to the ground with an audible thud, groaning in pain as she groggily tried to rise to her feet.

She felt something grab her from behind and forcefully hoist her to her feet and was greeted by the muted forms of Lapis and Bismuth.

“Is that all we were to you, Rose? Just playthings for you to perform make believe with? All so you could run around pretending to be some kind of hero?” Lapis taunted, her frozen water wings wrapping around her to form an icy tomb.

Bismuth’s hands molded into hammers, “You think you can just throw us away when it suits you? That you can just lock us up and throw away the key?”

Rose struggled to free herself as Bismuth prepared to attack. With every ounce of her strength, she freed herself from her prison and dodged Bismuth’s blows not a moment too soon. She tried to hatch a new plan of escape and looked to the sky. If brute force was not enough, perhaps trickery would work just as well.

Her gem glowed, her form twisting and reshaping into the form of a Harpy Eagle. Wasting no time, she spread her wings and took to the skies. She hoped she could clear the battlements in time, if she could just get past it…

“You think you can just run from this?” said another voice, “Oh no, not this time. You’re gonna own to what you’ve done, whether you like it or not.”

Her hopes were swiftly dashed as she collided with a truly nightmarish creature with skin that was the color of ash. It snapped at Rose’s wings with its long beak adorned with thin, spikey teeth as it held itself aloft on wide membranous wings.

Rose recognized the creature from ancient bones humans unearthed that revealed the remains of long dead lifeforms that once roamed the earth. The one here she recalled being referred to as a ‘pterosaur’. And once quick glance was enough to spot Amethyst’s bleached gemstone present on its chest.

She tried to use her smaller size to outmaneuver her attacker, but to no avail. With every twirl, nose drive, and swoop she made through the air, Amethyst match her perfectly. This was a losing battle, and Rose knew it. She scanned down below, spotting an open window on the second floor too small for her pursuer, but the perfect size for her, and plummeted towards the empty room.

As Rose landed, she reverted to her original form. She flinched as Amethyst scratched against the window frame, shoving her beak inside to snatch a bite before pulling out and flying off.

Rose took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief… until she noticed where she was. From the rusted remains of the discarded weaponry, the broken anvil, and pit of ash beside it, Rose recognized this room as the castle armory. An armory full of weapons that began to move on their own.

Withered swords, daggers, axes, and all manner of armaments began to float in midair, their trajectory pointed right towards her. Already anticipating what was coming, she encased herself within a protective bubble. Most arms bounced harmlessly away, but soon enough; her defenses began to whither. Repeated attacks scratched and wore away her bubble’s protective surface and forced it to crack.

A well-aimed spear punctured through her guard, just barely stopping at her gemstone. She spotted the doorway on the other side of the room. Could she make it? Did it matter? If she stayed here, she would be shattered for sure.

Summoning a shield to each of her hands, she dropped her bubble and booked it for the door. A few more projectiles sliced through the air, but her shields held through as she ducked out. She made it; she was safe…

A sudden overwhelming rush of pain reminded her of her mistake as she was hurled out of the room. The discarded anvil flying past her as she hit the ground.

Shadows began to surround her; familiar faces belong to those she held dear looked down on her. She recognized them all. Steven, Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby, Bismuth, Peridot, Lapis. All of them devoid of color as they stood poised and ready to finish her.

She tried to rise to her feet, a sharp pain shooting up her back and robbing her of her footing. She couldn’t face them, not like this. And what could she do? She was only a Quartz, and these people were her family. She had neither the strength nor the will to fight them off.

“Please… please stop… you win…” Rose pleaded between labored breaths, “You’re right… it’s all my fault… I’m sorry.”

She expected them to say something, anything. Even if it was only to deride her all the more. But curiously, they did nothing. She looked to each of them, completely puzzled as she fought to rise to her feet. As soon as she did, a pillar of frost shot upward and grabbed hold of Rose’s arms, incasing them in frozen chains before pulling her down.

The row of smiling faces parted in the center. “Hello, Pink.” Rose nearly jumped at the unknown voice before she felt confused. Was that… her voice?

“Oh, excuse me, where are my manners. You go by ‘Rose’ these days, right?” From a dark corner of the room, another figure emerged. From her form to her hair, she was practically the spitting image of her. Rose stammered as she tried to make sense of it all, “Who… where…”

The stranger gave a bitter, hollow laugh before kneeling to face her at eye level, “Oh, you don’t remember me? You don’t recall greeting a young, fresh faced Quartz that emerged from this very planet?” she asked in sarcastic, patronizing manner, “You don’t remember bubbling her away with the rest of us before she knew what was happening around her and banishing her away to that monument to your obsession?”

It all began to click, the realization of who this doppelganger was filling the others with a sudden dread. “You’re… you’re one of the Earth Quartzes.” Rose muttered.

“Oh good, at least you’re paying attention.” She mocked, “Now I understand you’re slow on the uptake. Don’t feel bad, dearie, I’ll go nice and slow.” The Quartz gave a slight bow to introduce herself, “Rose Quartz, Facet 9, Cut 1NK. And I suppose you’re wondering why I went to all this trouble…”

Rose noticed she was holding something in her hands as she sat up and began to twirl it, “When the Diamonds came to release us, we were all given a choice. Stay on Homeworld with them to foster a new peace or ‘come home’. Here, on this miserable mudball of a planet.” 1NK nearly spat with unrestrained disgust, “When we asked about the war and about you, I didn’t want to believe what they told me.”

She looked back to Rose, an intense, burning rage in her eyes as she spoke through gritted teeth, “You and Pink Diamond were one and the same. You took our guise, and to hide yourself among the other gems, you locked us away before we could have the chance to single you out.”

Guilt wracked Rose’s mind as she remembered carrying out such a deed. An act she herself admitted was born of her cowardice. Her fear of being discovered by the Diamonds, of losing the freedom of losing the one place she loved most and the identity she coveted more than any moment she had from being a Diamond.

1NK’s biting anger soon gave way to remorse, “The others… they wanted nothing to do with you, and simply chose to move on and accept that you took everything from us. But not me. I wouldn’t forget, and I would never forgive.”

There was something about this that still didn’t make sense. Rose looked to her son; his consciousness still vacant as he stood beside her double. There was still something that she needed to know, “What have you done to my son?”

1NK smirked, “Oh, him? I had some help from this.” She said, presenting the white object she was carrying in her hand. With one push of a button, the ends extended outward into a staff, the top splitting open to reveal a floating grey jewel at the top that emitted a stinging white light.

“I recall it being classified as an ‘Assimilator’. Usually reserved for the most elite Homeworld enforcers. Of course, that was before your son changed everything.”

The Quartz took a moment to sit beside Rose, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she held it up to inspect it, “It’s a fascinating little tool, don’t you think? You wouldn’t believe the lengths I went to acquire it. They sure don’t make them like they used to.” She joked, retracting back to its more compact shape, “And no doubt it was easy to use this to pin the blame on another. I wanted to make sure all of you wouldn’t find me until I was ready. And I found the Diamonds do so love to squabble amongst each other.”

Rose couldn’t help but feel just a bit frustrated with herself at that comment. She tried not to give this stranger the satisfaction in knowing she had successfully fooled her. But the smug look she gave her as she stood beside told her that she already knew.

“Admittedly, it’s not as potent as White’s own power, but it gets the job done. That hapless Agate was as simple as any gem to use this on. But he was special.”

She knelt down beside Steven, gently placing a hand on each shoulder as she turned to her with a smile on her face, meanwhile Steven stood there as lifeless as ever, “Oh, Pink, dear, I put so much hard work into molding him just right. I had to learn to maneuver the intricacies of the organic brain. But little by little, I managed to peel back the layers of the boy’s mind. Oh, and the things he began to share with me. All I had to do was tell him to hit you all where it hurt, and given the look your face, it seemed to have done the job. It took him weeks to finally stop crying, though. I imagine he must have gotten that from you…” 1NK sighed, as she eyed Rose as if to expect some sort of reaction.

Rose felt her hands ball into tight fists at that. The idea of this gem, this individual that bore such a uncanny resemblance to her, inflicting who knows what awful things to her child was enough to make her blood boil. And this person, this monster… she enjoyed it. She clearly took a sick, perverse pleasure out of it all.

Without thought, she lunged towards her, her restraints only just stopping at her face before reaching their limit. 1NK cackled, “Oh, it seems you have quite a nasty temper.” She teased, “It would seem you’re not so soft and sweet after all. Luckily for me, I’m not as squeamish about doing what I must to accomplish my goals.” She said, motioning towards Lapis before pointing back down to Rose’s shackles.

“When this gets out, when the other Diamonds find out, they’re going to hunt you down!” Rose snarled.

The Quartz only laughed, “I wouldn’t worry about the Diamonds…”

“And why’s that?” Grumbled Rose.

“Look at us, Pink, we match.” She remarked, gesturing to herself, “Same hair, same voice, same body shape. Even the same gem placement.”

Rose scoffed, “What? You think you can fool them? They’ll know you’re not me and-”

“That’s where this comes into play.” She said, presenting the Assimilator still in her hand, “When I’m done with the brat, I’m going to use it on you, and then you’ll tell me every dirty little thing about yourself. And once I’m done, and you’re all shattered, I’ll make my way to Homeworld and request an audience from the Diamonds. And I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been practicing.”

Her expression softened as she stood up straight and folded her hands together, “Oh, Yellow, Blue, White, it was simply tragic! My baby boy! That vile Agate went and took him from me, she shattered my precious gems! I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever loved! My heart may belong to Earth, but I am just too stricken with grief to ever return. I humbly request that I return to your tender love and care!”

Rose’s anger melted into disbelief, “You… you can’t do that…”

“I can. And I will.” She retorted, “You took everything from me, it’s only fair I take everything from you!”

It couldn’t end like this. Rose couldn’t let this gem hurt these innocent gems because of her, “Please… I beg you… don’t do this to them. Especially not my baby, not my Steven…”

1NK gave her a look of complete disdain as she taunted Rose’s desperate request, “Oh, you poor thing. Does it hurt to see something you love twisted like this? Does it pain you to know how easy it was for me to take him from you?” she asked in hushed tones. She struck Rose in the back of her hand, “Good. The sound of your pathetic blubbering is a reward in and of itself. But it’ll be nice to remember it when I’m being pampered in your palace and living like a Diamond.”

She gave a chillingly enthusiastic grin as she leaned close to whisper right into her ear, “I want you to see this, Pink. I saved these ones just for this very moment. I want you to watch as your greatest creation shatters every gem here. And I want you to know as their screams of agony die on their lips that this was all. Your. Doing.”

Rose felt a chill crawl up her spine at the sound of her excitement. She fought back the urge to break down, she had to hold out hope that something would happen, that her son wouldn’t be forced to take another’s life. Especially not with her sitting a few feet from him.

1NK looked to the half-gem boy, “Steven, you have been such an obedient boy, how about I let you choose which one dies first?”

Steven looked to the other gems gathered around him. Rose almost felt ashamed that she noticed her breath halt when he paused to stare at her, or more accurately, through her. But when he looked to Pearl, he stopped and pointed to her.

The Quartz grinned, “That one, now? Well, it seems he has it out for you, Pearl.” She grabbed hold of Pearl and forced her to her knees. 1Nk paused, staring at Pearl’s oblivious, smiling face. “Hmm… I feel this is… missing something.” She pondered before snapping her fingers and looking back to Rose with a wicked grin on her face, “Oh, I know!”

She leveled her staff above Pearl’s gem. In a matter of moments, the shades of peach and milky white restored as Pearl’s unphased expression began to change. “Uh… what?” Pearl blinked as she took in the scene around them, her eyes stopping dead at 1NK, “Rose?”

1NK rolled her eyes, “Good guess.” Before Pearl could react, a set of icy shackles sprung from the ground to keep her in place. 1NK cleared the way for Steven as he clenched his hand into a fist, a spiked bubble forming around it.

What confused Rose most of all, though, was Pearl reaction. Past the initial shock of Steven’s state, she looked almost… serene. As though she wasn’t even trying to escape. Had she given up? Had this gem, or stars forbid, Steven done something to her? Rose couldn’t watch this, she couldn’t watch Pearl be shattered, especially not by her own son.

“Steven, baby, don’t do this! This isn’t what you want!” Rose cried out.

“Pearl, do you have any parting words for our little Diamond here?” 1NK asked.

“Steven, there’s something I have to tell you…”, Pearl muttered.

Pearl looked to Steven with a mournful gaze, tears already starting to form in her eyes even as her tone remained strangely calm. “Steven, I’m sorry… I did mistreat you. I was unfair, and bitter, and whatever else you think of me. I was so focused on my own pain that I couldn’t see how much my anger hurt you. I know some part of you had to feel this way to act like this, and if that is what you truly think of me, then know that I accept the consequences of my actions…”

The edge of Steven’s smile started to twitch, “You… what?”

“If what I did truly pushed someone as sweet, and wonderful, and kind as you to feel this way towards me… than I deserve what’s coming. Just know that I love you so much, and that I wish I had treated you better from the start.”

Steven began to tremble, his stone-faced expression crumbling as tears began to trickle down the sides of his face, “Pearl…I… I don’t want to kill you. I just wanted to make you proud of me, and I was so angry because I felt that I would never be as good as Mom was to you.”

Pearl gave a warm, gentle smile, “Steven, there is never a day that goes by that I’m not proud of you.”

“What is this!? What are you doing?” 1NK snapped, grabbing hold of Steven by his shoulder.

Steven’s voice ached with remorse as he pulled his arm from her grasp, “Th-this has to stop… I don’t want to shatter her…”

“Aw, you want your precious Pearl?” She taunted as she threw Steven. The stone breaking apart as he made contact before falling limply to the floor in pain, “Fine! I’ll let you hold her shards before I kill you myself!”  
“Don’t you dare touch my son!” Rose and Pearl spontaneously hollered out in unison.

Steven was quick to recover, his focus centered squarely on 1NK as he rose to his feet. He readied himself to launch an attack… “Ahahah. Stop right there.”

Rose looked back to 1NK, a bright white light emanating from the active Assimilator in her hand, while Steven stood completely still, back and legs straight, his arms crossed in a Homeworld salute.

“There, I still have some sway over you! Now then-” Thee room began to echo with a sound like thunder. A large, pink colored vortex appeared from behind 1NK. Not a moment later, Lion materialized from the other side, Connie and Sapphire clinging to his mane. The beast skid across the ground, his claws digging into the rocky floor to slow his momentum to an abrupt stop.

“What!? Who!?” 1NK cried out in confusion.

Connie’s stoic expression quickly disappeared as she looked at the Quartz with a raised eyebrow, “Rose?”

Rose made an awkward cough and gingerly spoke up, “Um, here, sweetie…”

Connie looked back to Rose, then back to 1NK, looking no less befuddled, “Okay, someone needs to explain this to me…”

“That Rose isn’t our Rose. She’s the one who took Steven and was going to use him to kill us!” Pearl shouted, “That thing in her hand is controlling him!”

Connie gave a slight nod, drawing her sword from her back as she readied her steed to charge. The Assimilator glowed in 1NK’s hand, its light stinging Rose’s eyes. She heard Lion’s growls, the clashing of metal on metal, and then nothing. In the distance, she parsed out the sound of a metallic clang of something rattling against stone.

The light faded; her sight restored once more. 1NK stood empty handed, her eyes filled with rage as she stared down Connie while the later beamed with confidence, “Guess that thing doesn’t work so well on humans, does it?”

Something began to tug on Rose’s shackles, it pulled until finally it snapped apart. Lion stood triumphant with a broken piece still in his mouth. Rose quickly knelt to embrace her companion, “Good boy.” She said before leaving him to free Pearl next.

Her focus snapped to her captor. The two of them locking eyes as they each stared down the other. Rose pondered her plan of attack. She looked just like her, so it wasn’t a stretch to assume she was as strong as strong as her. So, if she couldn’t out muscle her, she could perhaps win through other means…

Pearl summoned a spear from her gem as Connie raised her sword over her head, both ready to aid Rose in battle. But not before being halted by a still enthralled Bismuth, the other gems gathering around her.

“Keep them busy!” shouted 1NK, cracking her knuckles, “Pink is mine!”

Each of their gemstones began to glow, their forms once again shifting to a new state. When it was done, much to Rose’s surprise, she had found both her and her combatant had assumed the same form, that of a large ram with massive curved horns.

Rose shook her head and scrapped the ground with her hooves to issue a challenge, one that was soon met. Their heads collided, their horns locking together, each one threatening to overpower the other, neither showing signs of doing so fast enough before one of them would grow tired. If she kept up like this, she wouldn’t last long.

1NK’s form glowed once again, horns and limbs retracking, her body growing slender to take the shape of a venomous Cobra. The Quartz snapped its head to bite at Rose’s legs. But she knew how to combat such beasts, she had remembered there being creatures who were gifted in countering their poisons.

Rose traded power and sturdiness for speed as she took the form one such creature, flashing her teeth and circling around to search of an opening to strike. 1NK struck once more, but now Rose was ready, springing her legs to launch herself in the air and over the snake’s head. Before even touching the ground, she prepared for a finishing strike to her opponent’s neck. But as she bit down, she noticed she had changed once more.

1NK’s new form had a hide like boot leather, Rose’s puny teeth doing little to even leave a mark. She heard the chilling hiss of a crocodile as 1NK thrashed about to toss her off her back, throwing her head back and snapping her crushing jaws.

With little time to grab hold, Rose was flung off, the other gem wasting no time to charge in. 1NK snatched Rose into her toothy maw and waited for her form to dissipate altogether as she stole a moment to bask in her victory…

But instead, she felt something begin to push its way out and force her mouth open. Her body left the ground as she fought to cling to her prey, she was not going to let her escape, if evasion was indeed her intention. But with this form, the Quartz was sure she wasn’t going anywhere quickly.

The gem clung helplessly to Rose’s side, her bulky form and thick hide proving too tough to pierce before she let go. Rose swung her body in 1NK’s direction, her unwieldy form proving to be surprisingly nimble and she prepared to trample her into the ground, her wickedly curved teeth revealed as she bellowed out a sound not unlike some bestial war cry.

But if brute force was what Rose had in mind, then she knew something far stronger to fight her with. She prepared for Rose’s assault, her gem straining as she rushed to counter. When Rose made contact, her attack harmlessly bounced off 1NK’s form as though she hit a brick wall. She stumbled, shaking her head to regain her bearings before being shoved to the ground by the 1Nk’s snake-like trunk.

Rose kicked to try and regain her footing, but it was as if she was fighting a mountain. The Quartz swayed her massive head to spear her with her tusks. Rose couldn’t afford to waste the energy to try and match her form, she knew she had to try something else.

Her body shifted once more, the pointed end of the tusk just missing her as her body rapidly shrunk. 1NK scanned the ground in front of her… and began to recoil. Rose scampered around her feet, using her tiny form to disorient the gem and tire it out as it panicked in her effort to focus her down.

A few times she came close, barely missing as 1NK kicked up dust and rock as she stomped below her in a frantic rush to destroy everything in the immediate space around her.

Rose could see from her increasingly sluggish movements that this form was becoming more of a hinderance than a help. She paused to perch herself on a small pile of debris. “Oh dear, are you getting tired?” she playfully asked.

Through the otherwise unreadable expression on her face, Rose almost gleamed an angry glare from her eyes and allowed herself to feel an iota of pride. In a flash of light, the titanic form of the elephant disappeared. Razor sharp talons already flying straight for her even as her unfinished form glowed with pink light.

Rose’s gem glowed as she spread her own wings out, the two raptors took to the skies to continue their battle anew…

* * *

Connie was at a loss in thinking of any scenario where they could win this fight. Oh sure, she normally had confidence in her ability to defend herself. And she had no doubt in Pearl’s instruction, especially with her at her side. But against the gems currently stacked against her? She wasn’t certain.

Her one relief came when she noticed Lapis, who was normally a force of nature in combat. But here, her movements felt… sluggish, and forced. Like she was fighting the ice she controlled more than the other gems. But even then, Connie made sure to not test her luck too much against her.

Peridot’s magnetic capabilities had seemingly been growing as time passed, despite being practically nonexistent initially. She would need to be careful, lest she wound up finding herself on the other end of her own sword.

Amethyst was a true wild card, her ability to shapeshift plus the versatility of her whip being something she had never faced before. The best could hope for there was to avoid being picked off from the rest of her team and let Lion keep her busy. But that still left two more…

Ruby, a stubborn little gem who’s limited pyrokinesis would most definitely spell trouble for her. And finally, Bismuth, a powerhouse who was her main cause of concern. She raw strength alone was already reason to give pause, but with the fact that her hands could theoretically take the shape of any weapon, she knew she had no chance facing her alone.

A trail of ice snaked across the floor towards her. With no time to dodge out of the way, Sapphire blocked its approached, forcing its momentum upward to help create a barrier of ice.

Connie breathed a sigh of relief, “Whew. Thanks, Sapphire.” She felt the air around her begin to warm, a spot of red spreading out from the center of their defenses before melting away for Ruby to make her move. Ruby grabbed hold of Connie’s wrist, white hot pain shooting up her arm as she cried out in agony. With one swing of her sword, she sliced through Ruby’s form like a knife through warm butter.

Sapphire wasted no time tending to her, summoning an ice dome around them as she looked over Connie’s wound. Burned tissue and blackened scorch marks covered her wrist, and even then, Connie fought to hold back her tears. “Connie, oh my stars. Hold still.” The one-eyed gem held her hand just above Connie’s arm, covering it in a thin layer of ice, “Are you still in a good enough condition to fight?” Connie gave a quick nod.

They looked out through the protection of their dome, Lion and Amethyst locked in combat as the latter took the form of gigantic boa constrictor to wrap herself around the big cat. Pearl however, had it even worse, as she found herself in a battle of one on three on against Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot.

She expertly ducked beneath Peridot’s metal projectiles before a hand shot up from the puddle of water Ruby had melted and freezing Pearl in place. Bismuth’s hand formed into a pair of spiked maces to finish her off, only to be knocked aside by Amethyst after Lion had managed to free himself.

“We have to help them!” Connie pleaded, rising to her feet to join the fray before Sapphire pulled her back.

“We don’t have the muscle to hold them all off, Not by ourselves!” Sapphire pleaded.

“How much longer before she reforms?” asked Connie, looking to Ruby’s gemstone.

Sapphire paused; her sight set to near future. She tried to block out the stress. Ice crystals forming around her as she tried to calm herself down and focus, “Maybe a few minutes.” She said, sounding uncertain.

Connie looked back to Pearl, already freed and fighting for her life, “We really just need to get Bismuth out of her hair for a bit.” She stated.

Though hesitant, Sapphire complied, retracting part of the ice away for Connie to make her move. She reached to snatch a nearby rock and chucked it towards her head. The gem was unphased, but at the very least it was enough to steal Bismuth’s attention.

Connie was nervous, this gem could crush her easily, even if she wasn’t currently injured. But she knew she didn’t have to fight her, just keep her busy. So long as she could distract her long enough for Ruby to reform, then Garnet to could take care of it.  
Bismuth moved with startling speed, her attempts to bludgeon her comparatively frail human foe only just missing as Connie juked and dodged every blow.

Sapphire looked to the crimson gemstone in her hand, “Ruby, please hurry.” She said frantically. Connie’s luck soon ran out, a backhanded blow striking her in the stomach, knocking the wind right out of her as she crumpled to the floor. In a desperate act, Sapphire raised her hand to shoot a spear of ice, striking Bismuth across the face. She looked back at her and made her approach.

“Ruby, please, we need you.” Sapphire whispered, “I can’t do this alone…”

Ice began to build around her as Bismuth hammered away. Cracks broke out across its surface. Connie gasped for air as she reached a shaky hand to retrieve her sword. She failed. They didn’t have enough…

A fiery glow began to bleed through the heart of the frozen sphere. Light pierced through the cracks as it began to shake until the pressure grew too great and exploded out in all directions. In its place stood Garnet, her visor materializing over her eyes as she summoned her gauntlets.

“Well, Bismuth, I remember you saying once that the power couple had been losing their step.” She said with a smile, “Let’s test that…”

* * *

Rose crashed back down to Earth with an audible thud and groaned in pain. Deep scratch marks littered her body, and she had a noticeable limp in her left leg. Although she was no less determined to keep going, she quickly found her body too ragged to lift herself off the ground. It was a struggle to maintain this animal form for long. She took a moment to catch her breath, reverting to her humanoid form as she collapsed to the floor.

She paused to catch her breath and paused when she noticed the object laid out in front of her.

There it was, the Assimilator, just laying on its side. The vile instrument 1NK used to twist her family into mindless drones. She wondered, if she destroyed it, would it free them? She couldn’t be sure, but she had to try. At the very least, it meant no other gem would be left at her mercy. She outstretched her hand to grab hold, biting back the pain she felt through her body… only to feel a foot begin to stomp down on it.

“Well… you’re stubborn… that’s for sure.” 1NK panted, “But it’s over. You’re going to pay for taking my life away ‘Rose Quartz’. Do you really think you deserved getting your happy ending after all the lives you’ve destroyed in your wake?”

“No… no I didn’t.” Rose admitted, “I know what I did to you was terrible. But I never wanted to hurt anyone. I only stayed because even after everything, I still had people that believed in me.”

“Then they’re foolish” she growled.

“Maybe they are. But I refuse to let them down.” Rose said earnestly, “I know I made you like this, you’re right to be angry with me, but please, don’t do this. Have you no mercy?”

1NK shrugged, “Well, Pink, I was made from your essence. A little bit of you helped bring me into this world along with all the other Earth Quartzes. So if this is what I am, what does that say about you?” she kicked the staff away, grabbing Rose by the collar of her shirt as she looked her over.

“I wonder, what would be the best way to kill you?” she asked herself in a spirited tone, “It seems you’re quite fond of shape shifting, and you’re just as enamored with this planet’s organic filth. But I can’t decide which one I want to use…”

She stroked her chin, looking into the distance as she was lost in her own thoughts. She paused, looking back to Rose with an impish grin, “Oh, you might like this one, Rose. Why would I limit myself to just one? I’ll just use the ones I prefer most!”

1NK tossed her aside, her body glowing with light as her form began to shift once more. Rose gasped as the gem’s new monstrous shape materialized. The front body and head resembled that of a lion. But placed just about its forehead sat the head of a goat, complete with obscenely large horns. Its lower body possessed a set of strong legs complete with cloven hooves, and in place of a tail was the head and neck of a snake.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Pink?” she asked sarcastically. Rose said nothing, only staring at the abomination in horror, too exhausted to escape. “What’s wrong, dear? I thought you liked fusion.”

Rose shut her eyes as she prepared herself. But… nothing happened. There was a clash, a sudden stop. She dared to open her eyes; her fatigue washed away in a rush of panic at seeing Steven face to face with the monster.

“You… leave… my family… alone!” Steven strained to speak, each word sounding more labored than the last as he held off 1NK. The latter’s hate-filled eyes were focused squarely on Steven as she gnawed at the object in his hands. With a twist of her neck, she snapped it in two, and immediately recognized what it was as Steven tossed away the broken halves of the Assimilator.

“Should watch… that temper.” Steven said.

1NK wasted no time in retaliating, grabbing Steven by the collar of his shirt and dragging him against the ground every which way. With what remained of his strength, he fought to evade the gem’s attempts to gore him with her horns.

Rose grit her teeth as she called upon the last of her strength to rush to his aid, her body too weary to do so with any sense of haste. “Stop.” She whispered as she stared down her son’s attacker.

Fed up, the Quartz threw Steven to the ground with enough force to leave an indent beneath him, the sight of it was enough to make Rose smolder in tranquil fury. “That’s enough.” She growled, catching the gem’s attention, “Leave him alone.”

“You want me to stop?” she taunted, “Then why don’t you come and make me?” Rose felt new energy surge through her, power that allowed her to better carry her broken body. The entire world seemed to recede all around her, nothing else mattered at that one moment than what was in front of her, her gemstone already radiating light, “LEAVE MY STEVEN ALONE!!”

1NK prepared for a killing bite before she felt something from behind tackle her to the ground. She shook her head to regain her senses, her ears filled with the sound of a mighty roar. As her eyes focused, she was met with the sight of a large, hulking grizzly barreling towards her.

She prepared for contact, the two slamming themselves into one another to force each other onto their hind legs. 1NK sought to take the advantage with her serpentine head. She went for her legs, but with each bite, she was met only with a mouthful of dense fur.

The two trashed about as they tested their might against each other, Rose overwhelming her with her superior bulk. In their scuffle, Rose felt her back-paw tread over the chimera’s snake head and made her move, popping it almost clean off from the rest of the Quartz’s form.

1NK backed up to steal a chance to regrow her appendage, a chance Rose made sure she would never get. She charged once more, her jaws latching onto one of 1NK’s horn as she proceeded to toss her like a dog with a rope toy, making sure to bash her against every solid surface around them. Rock and dust exploded off the walls, the walls splintering to pieces on top of them with every successful hit.

Sure enough, the bony extension snapped apart. 1NK wailing in pain as Rose continued to keep up the pressure. She made desperate swipes across Rose’s face as the latter forced her on to her back.

But Rose either didn’t notice or didn’t care, only carrying on with crushing her with her sheer size and raking her over with her claws. There was almost no real strategy in her movements, no finesse, no thought. It was only pure savagery. The only thing Rose wanted right now was 1NK’s head, and there was nothing she could do to stop her.

Rose hoisted herself onto her hind paws, only to slam her front paws back down. 1NK felt completely helpless as her entire body was being crushed. At last, she surrendered, disappearing a puff of smoke as her gemstone clattered to the floor.

In her wild fury, Rose made a triumphant bellow, her body once again overtaken feelings of lethargy, but she did it, she won. She just needed to return to her Steven, to keep anything else from harming him. She felt a stinging pain in her back-left leg, her form threatening to dispel at the slightest bit of stress.

She gingerly lifted Steven into her arms, resting her back against a remaining chunk of wall as she rested her eyes. Her ears twitched. Not far from her, she could pick several footsteps approaching her, but they wouldn’t take him from her, not this time. As the group turned the corner, she met the intruders with a hoarse, burdened roar.

“Rose, stop, it’s us!” Connie shrieked.

Amethyst dashed between them, lowering her voice to sound as calm as possible, “Easy there, Mama Bear, we ain’t gonna hurt your cub.”

Rose paused, looking to her and the others to see their color restored. With one last exhausted sigh, Rose felt her body resume her original form. She struggled to maintain her grip on Steven before Bismuth rushed to scoop him into her arms. Even then, she could hardly stand without Garnet and Pearl holding her up.

“I… I’m sorry.” Rose said, still dazed and lightheaded, “I… don’t know what came over me…” she noticed Connie’s arm coated in ice and dripping with blood, “Connie, sweetie, are you alright?”

Bismuth smiled, “She’ll be fine, she just needs a trip to your fountain. But first, let’s take care of… Steven?” the rainbow haired gem held Steven out for the others to see. His skin, though no longer a stark white, was still noticeably paler. His cheekbones far more pronounced while his eyes appeared more sunken in. He looked extremely gaunt, if not outright skeletal.

“He looks like he hasn’t eaten in weeks.” Connie said with worry in her voice.

“Either that gem didn’t know how to look after a human…” Garnet growled, “Or she did this intentionally.”

Peridot looked Steven over curiously, “It’s likely his gem kept him going for a while, but if this had gone on any longer...”

Rose looked back to where 1NK’s gem laid. Her imagination running wild with the idea of how best to avenge her son. If somehow, they couldn’t save him after everything because of this, she didn’t know what she would do…

She felt a strong hand on her shoulder, “Rose, she’s not worth it…” Bismuth insisted.

“You’re right… she’s not.” Rose sighed.

“I could run a full health diagnostic once we’re home.” Peridot suggested, “But my knowledge only goes so far as Gemology. My understanding of human wellness is… lacking.”

Connie smiled, “It’s okay, Peridot, I know someone who can help us once we get home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost over... one more chapter... 
> 
> Okay, so this one took awhile. Thought it would at all, though. Basically, had a good chunk of it written up beforehand, had a cliff notes version typed up. Had it more or less ready to post... and then I actually read it over. I don't know why I didn't notice this sooner, but it just didn't gel. A lot of standing around and talking, a sort of anticlimactic ending. And I though y'all deserved better, so I just scrapped most of it and tried again. Much happier with what I came up with. Last Chapter shouldn't be too long now!


	8. Chapter 8

From the moment they brought Steven home, everyone knew they had to act fast. Connie had made sure to give Greg her emergency contact to ensure her mother would pick up immediately as she and Lapis made their way to Rose’s fountain. 

Peridot, meanwhile, made repeated trips from her workshop in Little Homeworld as she and Pearl worked feverishly to fasten whatever they would need to monitor Steven’s vitals. Rose and Greg were all too happy to surrender the futon for their convenience, listening attentively for instructions for any remaining materials or aid in assembly. 

It may have looked like something that had been dug up from a dumpster, but it worked. Steven’s heartbeat giving a consistent bleep over the recycled speaker, it’s spiking visible through the busted computer monitor that looked more duct tape than machine.

With Steven in good hands, Bismuth and Garnet left to meet with 1NK’s gemstone bubbled safely away to see to Fire Pearl. Seeing as her Agate’s soldiers were the hardest hit victims of her actions, they would make sure to see that their killer faced the consequences. Whether on Earth or Homeworld was up to her.

Priyanka arrived just as Connie and Lapis returned from the fountain, a floating glob of spring water held aloft by the latter. But even after supplying it to an IV drop, it did little to better his condition, much to Rose’s surprise. 

Admittedly, her healing gifts were usually used for those suffering from injury or disease. But Steven was technically suffering from neither. Still though, they made sure to store the rest in plastic bottles, just in case. 

When Rose explained everything to Dr. Maheswaran, it looked as though her jaw was ready to hit the floor. Thankfully, with Peridot’s insight on the delicate functions of gems to guide her hand, she was ready to help the best she could with starting Steven’s recovery.

Rose swore she was holding her breath the whole time. In the back of her mind, she waited for the moment the Doctor would sigh and regretfully tell her that there was nothing she could do or that she was too late. She felt a lump form in her throat as she saw her Steven lay there in bed so motionless. But she bit back her tears, she knew she had to be strong, she had to hold out hope for him.

She froze when she felt something take her hand. She snapped from her trance to spot Greg, a reassuring smile on his face before he stood up on his toes to give her quick peck to her cheek. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to. His look was all she needed. Rose felt her lips crease into a smile before returning his kiss.

After what felt like an eternity, Priyanka approached the two, her eyes still fixed on the set note she had scribbled down during her assessment to Steven’s condition, “Mr. and Mrs. Universe? I’m sure you’re curious about Steven’s condition. Rest assured, he’ll be fine. Your friend has been very informative about the nature of gem… oh, dear, what did you call it again?” she asked Peridot.

“Gemology.” Peridot answered in a deadpanned tone.

The Doctor shook her head, “I swear, she’s making that word up.” She grumbled, “But regardless, the equipment she has provided was useful in helping to understand his condition, even if it does look like she recovered most of it from a recycle bin.” From behind, Peridot shot a piercing glare that Priyanka elected to just ignore.

Peridot rushed to retrieve a portable chalkboard from across the room, on it showed a rough silhouette of Steven with his gemstone. Beside were notes that read ‘immune system buffer’, ‘light reinforced musculature’, and one ending with a question mark labeled ‘foods that induce positive thoughts=healthier with gemstone?’ with arrows pointing to random spots on the humanoid shape.

With a toy sized pool cue in hand, the small green gem cleared her throat, “From what we could assess, the essence secreted from Steven’s gem has been supporting his organic half since he was born. Making sure he was provided with the necessary nutrients from the food he eats, as well as acting as a buffer to any harmful microorganisms on this planet. Though it isn’t perfect, it is undeniable that it played a part in his survival in this instance.”

Priyanka dismissively rolled her eyes as she flipped through more of the pages in her notes, “It goes without saying that he’s suffering from the effects of extreme dehydration and starvation. Drastically reduced blood pressure, weight loss, weakening of the muscles. And you’re saying he was like this for three months?”

“More or less.” Rose mumbled.

The Doctor rubbed the back of her neck and looked to be choosing her next words carefully so as to explain everything as delicately as she humanly could, “If he were anyone else, he’d be dead.”

“Do we need to take him to the Hospital?” Greg asked.

Priyanka looked to Steven before looking back to them and sighed, “Normally, I’d say yes. But not here. If you know what to do, he’ll bounce back eventually. I would estimate approximately twelve weeks.”

Twelve weeks? Is that all he needed? Rose felt like a mountain had been lifted from her shoulders, she had to muster all her will to not break down and cry tears of joy. Whatever she needed to do in the meantime to help him get back on his feet, she knew she’d do it, no questions asked. 

“Here are a few things I recommend…” Priyanka added, “He needs clear fluids, water, broth, anything of that nature. Also, don’t give him any large meals to help get his weight back up. Have small, frequent meals, and only nutritionally rich food. I would also advise you schedule him for strength training to help support healthy muscle growth. And make sure he gets plenty of rest.”

Pearl seemed to perk up at the suggestion, “I can compile a routine for him to follow. Mind if I call you regarding any questions?”

“That’s fine. It’s no bother to me.” Priyanka reassured.

“Dr. Maheswaran?” Rose asked tentatively, her voice almost shaking as she struggled to hold herself together.

“Yes, was there anything else?” 

Without warning, Rose pulled her up off the ground into a bear hug, “Thank you so much for doing this. It means the world to us.”

Priyanka tried not to show the strain in her voice as she fought to regain enough air to speak, “Of course. Not a problem. And for future reference, you can just call me Priyanka. I’ve been told family doesn’t need to be formal.”

Rose paused, her confusion shifting to jubilation as she spotted Connie looking to the two of them from Steven’s bed side with a wide grin plastered to her face. “Right, thank you.” She whispered as she set Connie’s mother down.

Once finally free, Priyanka stole a moment to catch her breath, “Well, my work is done. I had better take Connie home.” Connie looked back to Steven one last time before stopping to leave quick peck to his cheek.

“We need to go, Connie. Remember, you have school tomorrow!”

“I know, I’m coming!” Connie answered with an exasperated sigh, the two disappearing into the night as the glow of Priyanka’s headlights disappeared from the view of the screen door.

The Warp pad began to hum, a glittering sheen emerging from the platform to herald Bismuth and Garnet’s return, “1NK and Fire Agate are with Fire Pearl. We’ve left them for the Diamonds to settle.” She stated in her typical stoic demeaner. 

Bismuth was quick to address any confusion as she spoke up, “We made it clear not to shatter them. That Rose Quartz was a real piece of work, but we shouldn’t stoop to her level.” 

Rose felt a pit in her stomach at the news. Despite the animosity towards her, she truly did feel remorse for Fire Agate’s loss. To lose the ones you hold so dear in such a gruesome manner was a fate she wouldn’t even wish on her worst enemy. And now knowing it was all to cover up a revenge scheme focused on her by a monster of her own making did little to clear her conscience. She sighed, “I’m just ready to put this whole nightmare behind us…”

Amethyst hopped up onto the kitchen counter, an entire cold pizza in hand, “Well, I guess if we learned one thing, it’s don’t screw with Steven around Mama Bear here, or she’ll mess you up good.” She joked, gesturing to Rose as she devoured an entire slice in one bite.

“I’m still unsure about that nickname. It makes me sound so angry and a little mean…”

Amethyst hurriedly scarfed down the remaining scraps of pizza before retorting, “What? No way! It just means you mean business around Steven and want to protect him. I know I always felt safe around you when I was younger.”

Rose could tell Amethyst was being completely earnest with her, her cheeks growing warm as she quickly understood the sentiment and tried not to sound too flattered, “…Well…”

“Hey, if it really bothers you, I won’t call ya that. But you always call Steven your ‘Baby Bear’, and I just think it’d be cute.” Amethyst reasoned with a shrug.

“Thank you, Amethyst.” Rose said as heartily as her voice could muster.

Amethyst leaned back and cross her arms behind her head, “No prob, Mama Bear.” She said with smile and a satisfied look on her face.

Peridot cleared her throat as she spoke up once more, “Now that we know Steven is in stable condition, Lapis and I should really be going as well.”

“Thanks again, Peridot, it means a lot that all of you went through all this trouble to help our son.” Greg replied.

“Would we be allowed to visit him once he wakes up?” Lapis asked sheepishly.

Rose beamed, “Of course! You’re always welcome to come visit us! Just be mindful that his body needs time to return to full strength.”

“Right, thank you.” Lapis said.

“And remember the same goes for you, Bismuth.” Pearl added, “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you soon.”

“You’re being awful friendly with her all of a sudden.” Amethyst remarked with a sly grin, “What happened to you two just being friends?”

“Well, Bismuth is… a little more than a friend now.” Pearl stated, “Oh, Bismuth?” she called, pulling the rainbow haired gem close to her with surprising force before imparting her with a kiss to her lips, “Thank you.”

Bismuth’s blush could practically be seen from space as she tried to process everything at once, “Well… uh… y’know, it was nothin’.” She muttered, her usual confidence floundering from Pearl’s actions.

Pearl held back a giggle from the gem’s addled state, “It wasn’t nothing. Your advice meant a lot to me, and it helped in giving me the confidence to speak to Steven. It played no small role with how we managed to save him.” She reassured.

“Oh... Great! So, well… you’re… welcome?” She said, still stumbling as she awkwardly made her way to the warp pad.

Pearl smirked, “My goodness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this flustered before, and all over little old me?”

“Down, Pearl.” Garnet joked.

Rose herself tried not to laugh as the three departed. She remembered a time when Pearl would behave in such a way to similarly confound her, of the delight she seemed to take in leaving her so speechless. Now, even if such a display of affection was directed to another, it gave Rose a sense of peace seeing that side of Pearl again.

But as Pearl looked back to Steven, all signs of bliss faded, “Rose, do you think he’ll… remember?” she asked.

“I don’t know, 1NK mentioned that thing wasn’t as strong as White’s own power.” 

“I hope not.” Pearl said, “I don’t know if I have the heart to talk to Steven about… that again.”

“I’m sure he knows how you feel about it.” Rose assured.

“It doesn’t change that it still happened.” Pearl stated bluntly, “Bismuth helped me before, but I’m a little scared that if I have to do so again, I’ll probably just devolve into a sobbing mess.” She said, trying her best to laugh it off despite the obvious discomfort in her voice.

Rose moved closer to Pearl, enveloping her into a hug, “Pearl, please don’t blame yourself. I’ve done terrible things, too. Things I could never hope to take back. It always hurts to think about them. But the best we can hope to do is forgive ourselves, and hope we change for the better.” She said, make sure to instill as much sincerity with her choice of words possible, “And you did, you’re a better mother than I will ever be.”

Pearl chuckled, “Didn’t know it was a competition.”

“If he does remember, then we’ll do whatever we must to show our support for him. He needs us all to be here for him after all he’s been through.”

Rose let go, spotting a tender smile from Pearl as she wiped her eyes, “Of course. Thank you, Rose.”

They could now hear the ruffling of bedsheets, followed by a deep, shaky breath as a weak voice spoke, “Guys?”

Rose looked back to the futon, seeing Steven look back, his eyes only half open. 

“Steven!” Pearl cried out, wasting no time to greet his return with hug. Rose followed right beside her, fighting back the urge to lift him right off the bed and into her arms, “Welcome home, Baby Bear!”

“We missed ya, man!” Amethyst cheered, plopping right onto the foot of the bed.

“How are you feeling, Steven?” Garnet asked.

Steven shrugged, “I’m okay, I guess.” He said, his voice noticeably quiet. He groaned from the strain of his own body as he tried to shift his weight before Greg stepped in to lend a pillow to support his back, “Take it easy, Schtoo-ball, you’re in pretty rough shape.”

As if a light had gone off in her head, Rose remembered something she had been waiting to give to him, “Oh, sweetie, I have something for you.” She said, her gemstone glowing for a moment before the prize stuffed dinosaur landed in her hands, “I won it at Funland and meant to give it to you for your birthday. I know you may be getting a little old for stuffed toys, but I wanted to give you at least some sort of gift.”

Steven gave a quick glance at the toy as Rose handed it to her, “Thanks.” He simply said, his tone still noticeably off.

“Peridot and Dr. Maheswaran were gracious enough to have everything set up for you here. I’m sure it’ll feel more homely than a hospital room. Doesn’t that sound lovely?” Pearl said, trying her best to sound excited.

“You guys don’t have to pretend to be nice to me.” Steven said, “I remember everything.”

“I missed out on that part, what did he say to you guys?” Amethyst asked. Garnet knelt down to whisper into Amethyst’s ear, the Quartz’s pupils shrinking to the size of dots, “Oh… he actually went there? That’s… that’s fucked up.”

“Amethyst!” Pearl hissed.

The small Quartz jumped, “Shit, sorry!” Pearl looked as though she were ready to say something before rolling her eyes and giving an exhausted sigh and turning her attention back to the half gem boy, “Steven, it’s all right. We know that gem was only using you to get to us.”

Steven winced, a look of guilt and fear present on his face, “Actually, the truth is… all those awful things I said to you guys…I meant it.” He admitted, “I never wanted to use it to hurt any of you, so I mostly just kept it to myself and pushed it to the back of my mind. But it was always there.”

The entire room quickly grew as silent as the grave, Steven’s hands shaking as he stared towards the ground and struggled to swallow the lump in his throat, “I felt… angry. Mostly at myself for feeling that way. I knew you all missed Mom so much, and I tried really hard to make up for her not being there. But it felt like no matter what I did, whenever I was around, it would just remind you of her, and how you wished that she was there instead of me…”

Rose looked to Pearl, her eyes glossy as she held her hands over her mouth and looked ready to fall apart at any moment. She recalled how much Greg had been a pillar of strength for her. She could see how much Pearl needed that kind of encouragement now.

‘Stars, she shouldn’t have let Bismuth leave.’ She thought. ‘After so many people offered to help Steven, after everyone here had to put up with my behavior these last three months, the least I can do is help someone else.’ Rose wrapped an arm around Pearl’s shoulder for a side hug, hoping it would help at least somewhat to calm her nerves as Steven carried on.

“…And I thought after all this time and with Mom back that these thoughts would just go away. But that thing… it’s like it pushed all those angry thoughts to the front. And it made me hurt all of you because of it. And I know none of you deserved that…”

“We’re the ones that made you feel like this.” Garnet calmly stated in grim acceptance, “And perhaps we did take advantage of you, or at least of how you wanted to make us proud. We should have remembered from the start that you were still just a child before we forced you to grow up just a bit too soon.”

Pearl gently placed a hand under Steven’s chin and guided his face to look towards her, “Steven, listen to me. You are not a mistake. You are not, and never will be a burden to me. This was my fault, not yours. I should never have made you feel like this. I’m the one who should be sorry. So, please, for goodness sake, stop blaming yourself for how I acted towards you.” She sternly insisted.

“…Okay…” Steven replied.

“Steven?” Rose said, “No matter what happens, no matter how much you change or how much you grow, you will always be our baby. Always. And we will never, ever stop loving you. Do you understand?”

Steven nodded, a smile on his lips as tears flowed down the sides of his face, “I missed you guys so much. I thought I’d never see any of you again. I love you all so much.”

Rose and Pearl each pulled him close to them and embraced him. An overwhelming feeling of euphoria consuming her as she felt him in her arms again. After three months of endless questions and heartache, the world finally felt like it made sense again. She thought to comfort him to try and calm his nerves, but now she was finding herself on the verge of tears herself.

And after all of that, after everything he went through up until now, and he still had the courage to smile? She felt a swell of pride for him. Stars, her baby was so strong. And now he was home, safe in her arms where would spend the next several weeks in her love and care. “I promise, Steven. We’ll always be here for you…”

“Thank you…” Steven said as he let go, a perplexed look on his face as he looked to her, “Mom? Pearl?” 

‘What did he call me?’ she thought. She looked down to inspect herself, now noticing she was much taller, her form taking up a larger space within the living room. Sudden awareness struck her as she looked down at her hands, their hue a soft shade of violet. ‘Did we..? No, we couldn’t have! We weren’t even thinking about fusing! Pearl and Rose’s only thoughts were about how happy they were to see Steven again…’

“Oh…”, Realization hit her as she froze, she was convinced now that she must have had the most obvious blush.

She expected Amethyst to look like she was practically fit to burst out in uproarious laughter at their obliviousness, but it seemed their sudden fusion had pulled the rug out from under them as well. Garnet, meanwhile, looked at her with the biggest, widest grin she swore she had ever seen.

“What’re you smiling about?” Rainbow Quartz asked.

“It’s good to know my advice paid off.” Garnet said, light refracting from her visor as she adjusted it.

She chuckled a bit before looking back to Steven, his eyes like saucers.

As delicately as she could, Rainbow Quartz took hold of the sides of his face, her hands almost eclipsing his head altogether, “Oh, Steven, my sweet boy. I know it may not be the most pleasant of circumstances, but I am overjoyed to finally meet you!” she said.

“I… I am too.” Steven said, “Wait, if you’re part Rose, does that mean I call you Mom or Rainbow Quartz?”

She smiled and gave a placid, tranquil laugh, “Oh, sweetheart, always such a little gentleman. You can call me ‘Mother’ all you like. Both Rose and Pearl see you as their little baby…”

Steven fought to hide the ghost of a smile as he wiped his eyes, “C’mon, guys.”

“Itty bitty.”

“Mom…” Steven grumbled.

“Teeny weeny.” She teased, pinching both of his cheeks.

Steven groaned, “Mooooom!!”

Rainbow Quartz’s soft chuckle quickly morphed to a devious snicker. “Aww, you’re so cute when you’re all fussy!” she said, pausing to leave a kiss on his cheek, “Mommy loves you, Steven.”

Steven sighed, “Love you more, Mom.” 

Another whirl of emotions confounded Rainbow Quartz, fueled by Rose and Pearl’s combined love for Steven, she reached out for another hug, “Now, I know being stuck in bed for weeks doesn’t sound like much fun. But I promise, Rose and Pearl will try their best to make it bearable.” She assured, “I think they’re going to very much enjoy spending some time having you all to themselves.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound bad at all, actually.” Steven said, “And thanks for the gift, I love it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES! AT LAST, FINALLY DONE! After so much hell, after my laptop dying, writer's block, and everything else, I finally finished this fic! This was meant to mark roughly one year of me writing fanfiction back on Deviantart, and now this story seems to have now become my longest fic to date! Thank you to all the wonderful, amazing people who took the time to wait for each chapter, and especially to the ones who left feedback. Y'all don't ever have to, but know you always make my day when you do! 
> 
> I hope to get the next few fics out soon, I do plan to adapt the plot of the Su Movie to my AU (and rest assured, I won't be pulling punches for Rose there) but for now, I think a one shot or two will help build my courage before tackling it, as I know that sucker will need to be longer than that!

**Author's Note:**

> Nearly a year ago today, I was just like most SU fans, I was losing my mind with the reveal of White Diamond and even then still trying to process the reveal of Rose Quartz past life as Pink Diamond. I had not the faintest idea of just what the show was going to do for the subsequent arc or even if the show would continue past it.
> 
> It was also here that I really endeared my self to the character of Rose herself. First seen as a perfect goddess like figure, than as a manipulative monster, then as a relatable and tragic hero born from a toxic and suffocating family. Truth be told that despite how cute the thought may have been, it was only then that I began to warm up the concept of Rose coming back after her apparent death. More than just the feels of seeing her with Steven, she now had a more grounded and interesting character. Would they still embrace her with open arms, or would the years of separation and the drama that took place in that fourteen year gap drive a wedge between her and her family? Would she try to carve a new niche in for herself, or would her own self destructive behavior prove to be too great hurdle?
> 
> It was finally after speaking with other like minded fans on deviantart that I decided to try my hand at fanfiction for the first time. And from what I had heard, people really seemed to enjoy it.
> 
> Now a year later, I have an entire AU under my belt. And though it's clear canonically Rose is gone, I try to think of it as a world of possibilities opening up for me and other equally interested fans. 
> 
> To the folks who read my fics and leave kudos and bookmarks, thank you so much. And to those who leave feedback, you are pretty much my lifeblood. I cannot thank you all enough. You are the reason I keep going. And I hope this next fic will make you as excited to read it as it is for me to write it!


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